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
Isaiah 1:18
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…”
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