Broken Pieces (Friday Devotional)

“If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

- 1 John 1:9

Lately, my son has gotten in the habit of rummaging through the drawer of our coffee table. There’s nothing special in there—a tin of spare change, a bunch of pens, and some coasters—but nevertheless he likes to dig through it and make a small mess in the process. Since, as I said, there’s nothing particularly important in the drawer, I generally let him do his thing when I see him scamper over to the coffee table.

But the other day, the mess went beyond a few coins on the floor. As I cleaned a dish in the kitchen, my son came running in with one of our cardboard coasters in his hand—in two pieces. I’d seen him drawing on the coaster and bending it, and it seems that he’d finally pushed it too far. He looked stricken as he held the two pieces up. “Broke,” he said with anxiety written all over his face.

Smiling, I took the pieces from his hand. “It’s ok, bud. Daddy can fix it.” Handing me the torn coaster, my son nodded with understanding and said, “Yes!” then went to find a ball to play with. The worry which had clouded his little face when he approached me had vanished, and he was back to business.

In that small, otherwise insignificant moment, it hit me—that’s exactly how repentance and forgiveness are supposed to work. My son recognized he’d done something wrong, came to me to admitting what he’d done, I forgave him, and he got back to work. According to the Bible, that’s exactly how our relationship with God is supposed to work: “If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The problem is that we overcomplicate things. When we sin, we tend to ignore the nagging conviction of the Holy Spirit; we rationalize or excuse our actions. When we do realize we’ve sinned, we are often too proud or too scared to go to God with what we’ve done. And when we finally take that step, repenting of our wickedness, we are plagued with self-doubt and guilt, unable or unwilling to accept the truth that God has forgiven us. Instead of embracing His grace, we try to earn it, plagued all the while by a fear of failure.

Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of God we must become like children, and indeed forgiveness is one area where adults repeatedly fail to understand what kids intuitively know. When you fall, you can go to God with your failures without fear of being disowned. When you sincerely confess to God, He is faithful to forgive you. And when you’ve been forgiven, you are cleansed of your sin; you don’t have to earn the forgiveness that’s already been given to you.

The forgiveness of God is supremely gracious, undeniably powerful—and so simple a child can understand it. So when you sin, don’t let fear or pride stand in the way of your relationship with Him. Go to Him with your broken pieces and allow Him to put you back together again.