There’s a cartoon where Calvin & Hobbes are outside with their sleigh after a heavy snowfall. Everything is blanketed in white, and this conversation unfolds between them:
Calvin: Wow, it really snowed last night. Isn’t it wonderful?
Hobbes: Everything familiar has disappeared. The world looks brand new!
Calvin: A new year… a fresh, clean start.
Hobbes: It’s like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on.
Calvin: A day full of possibilities! It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy... Let’s go exploring!
In the brutal mid-summer heat that we’re currently experiencing here on the southern tip of Africa, it’s difficult to imagine a landscape blanketed in snow, like that in the cartoon. But it’s an enticing image all the same – not just because it would provide respite from the heat (and the mosquitoes!), but also because a snow-covered landscape suggests a fresh, clean start. As Hobbes puts it, “It’s like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on.”
Is a fresh, clean start a real possibility in the world in which we live? Or will the consequences of our actions and the muddy marks left by foolish choices always be a blemish on the landscape of our lives?
The startling good news of the gospel is that with God a fresh, clean start is possible, thanks to the free gift of God’s forgiveness. This does not mean that we can simply avoid the consequences of sinful living, with a cheap ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card. It does mean that the consequences of our sinful living are covered by God’s grace in a way that makes healing and reconciliation possible, and enables us to start exploring new ways of living that are more life-giving.
PRAYER
Thank you Lord that your gift of forgiveness is such that it really is possible for me to make a fresh and clean start. Open my eyes that I might see how wondrous is the world of your grace, and give me the courage to go exploring within it. Amen
SCRIPTURE READING
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isaiah 1:18)
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