When its gone....it's gone

This weekend my husband and I headed off to the hill country.  We took my father-in-law's vehicle to our property, but it was bittersweet as coincidentally, it  was the one year anniversary of his passing.  On our way home, we reminisced of sweet times with a man that  missed living a century by only  fourteen months.

My husband spoke of memories at my father-in-law's house which we are preparing to sell.  He spoke of being a young boy and running his train on a make-believe track lined on a throw rug in the den.  The fire burned as his parents looked on from their comfortable chairs.  That was my husband's childhood home.

The conversation was somber as we spoke of memories and dealing with grief.  I seldom see him express emotion and asked about it.  He stated that sometimes he would get lost reminiscing of times with his father.

We are renovating my father-in-law's house so the tear down was difficult.  We found notes that he had left in closets, drawers, and walls but none were as impacting as the kids measurements and ages located on a wall in the laundry room.

When we began the project I noticed the measurements and saw where in 2003, Matthew's name was added to the wall.  We were married in 2003 and he became one of the grand kids that year.  It was sad to see and I chose to "move on" to other renovations.

At last, we could not delay it any longer.  The time came for that wall to be painted like all the rest. I was not there but my husband said that it was quite difficult to put that coat of paint on the wall and erase memories of his mom writing the measurements in pencil. 

My response to him was "it's gone!" It is covered up to be seen no more.  I told him it is much like sin.  When we call upon God and ask him to forgive us of our sins, "he is faithful to and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" [1 John 1:9].


We want to hold on to sin much like we wanted to hold on to the markings on that wall.  Once the decision was made to let it go, it was gone.  Unfortunately, when we let go of sin, we always want to take it back.   We would be better off to let it go completely, but  I will give you fair warning that when you hand God your sin there will always be someone to remind you of your past, bring up your sin, and taunt you about who you were before Christ. 

My advice to you is don't listen to those people.  Turn your your sin over to God and "when it's gone...it's gone."

...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Psalm 103:12