There is nothing like a barrage of
pictures to generate nostalgia. As you flip (or click) through a
photo album of your childhood years you are bombarded with memories.
You laugh at stories you have not remembered in years, experience the
love of a friendship long expired, and relive the adventures that
seemed quite ordinary at the time. Sometimes, you begin to think of
how things could have been; how you wish they would have been; how
they really might have been if only you had… or hadn’t…
I would venture to say that most people
have experienced or still experience regret. For most of us, it pops
it’s head up every now and again to tell us we are stupid or
worthless. It tells us we are to blame for our unhappiness or that
of another. “You messed everything up,” it says. It will sell
us a general lack of hope due to our mistakes. “Well now you’ve
done it. They’ll never respect you again.” For some people, this
regret is so strong, it goes so far as labeling them “irredeemable”.
“How could God ever love you after all you’ve done?” What a sad
existence. What an unnecessary weight we choose to bear. But many
of us choose it at one level or another.
When a father is teaching his son to
ride a bicycle, he already knows, in all his wisdom, that somewhere
in the process, his son will fall. And when the inevitable occurs,
how does he look at his son? Does he look at him with disgust,
saying “You’re pathetic. You’re worthless. You will never learn
how to ride a bike. You are hopeless. Irredeemable.”
No, he does not. He looks down, perhaps with a tear in his eye,
and says “Come on. Let’s get you back up on that bike and try it
again.”
Friends, our Father does not see us as
failures, disappointments, or even sinners. The New Testament
repeatedly refers the Body of Christ as saints. Not sinners who
follow Jesus. Saints that sometimes sin. Isaiah says that he sees
our righteousdeeds
as filthy rags. But he sees us as though we were Christ himself.
Why not? After all, we are covered in His blood.
We
serve a big God. I have not seen any failure yet that He cannot
redeem. You are not worthless. You are a saint. So next time you
think of how things could have been, just remember the best is yet to
come.
