He does not punish us for all our sins; He does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:10-12
It always amazes me. At 217, like most homes, we have a trash can in several rooms in our house. Of course, the main attraction is in the kitchen. There we have a stainless steel, thirteen-gallon can. It holds, oh, I’m guessing, about thirteen gallons of trash—bet you saw that one coming, didn’t you? At any rate, it always surprises me just how fast that can will fill up. It is only my wife Judy and me in the house and yet we manage to fill it up at least a couple of times a week. The bottom line is we produce more trash than we think.
Now for part two. In Judy’s home office, in my home office, in both bathrooms, and in at least one of the bedrooms we have additional trash cans. Now these don’t fill up quite as fast but guess what? They do fill up. So occasionally one of us will make the rounds and gather all the trash from the other parts of the house. Well, surprise again! You would be amazed just how much trash we gather. As we make the rounds, the bag we are carrying gets fuller and fuller and fuller. And by the time we are done we have a very full and very heavy bag. How about that?!
All the trash, whether it is from the kitchen, or the rest of the rooms ends up in the monster size can outside. Once a week, the trash guys drive by the house, grab the can, and dump it into their truck and off it goes wherever trash goes that they collect. All I know is I am grateful that someone takes care of all my rubbish (that’s a British word I learned while in England) so I don’t have to deal with it anymore. How about that?!
You know it isn’t just physical rubbish that we must deal with in life. The truth is we do a pretty good job of producing life rubbish too. There are words that should have never been spoken, thoughts that we should not have thought, actions that would have been better undone and that is just the short list. The Bible tells us that we all have done things that are wrong…that are offensive…both to others and to God. Too often we brush it off…excuse it away but the bumps, bruises, and scars on the lives of others don’t go away that easily. And honestly, God just can’t brush it off either. But there is hope…big time.
You see God made a way for all the rubbish of our lives to be forgiven. In fact, He says in His book that all our rubbish can be taken not just to the dump, but as far as the east is from the west. In another place He says they are dumped in the sea…never to be seen again. You might wonder why God would do that for us. The answer is one word…love. God knows we are broken but He just loves to us too much to leave us that way. That is why He sent His Son Jesus to die in our place on an old rugged cross.
Here’s more good news. No matter what kind of rubbish you have accumulated, no matter if you think it is impossible for anyone to take care of your rubbish…God can…and God will. All you must do is ask. Now don’t confuse this with religion or starting this or stopping that. This is all about His love for you and His amazing grace. So why not take your rubbish to the curb…right now…today? You can, because “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 