The Church Mouse: Burning Your Fingers

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)

I burned my finger the other day and boy did it ever hurt! I was baking cookies and for some reason I forgotten that the pan which I had just pulled out of the oven would still be hot!
(Not one of my brighter moves! LOL)

As I stood at the sink running cold water over my thumb I recalled a story that my dad told me about a young neighbor boy who often visit our farm. My dad would say that his mother was “needing a break from Ralph today” so she would send him over to visit us.

Ralph was a very inquisitive young man. He was always asking hundreds of questions about everything. He also like to see what made things work, to the point of taking them apart, which often meant they would not work again or at least until someone put them back together again. Ralph was never involved in the process of putting them back together.

Anyway, Ralph appeared at our house one day, as my dad was in his work-shop using his grinder on the mowing machine sickle bar blade to sharpen it. We kids like to watch this process as there was always lot of sparks flying off of the grinder. But we also knew never to touch the blade because it would be hot from the grinding. My dad had told all of us this many times. But on this day Ralph reached out and touched the blade before my dad had dipped it in the water tub to cool it. Ralph dropped it immediately. My dad looked at him and said.
“Burned your fingers?”
To which Ralph replied.
“No, It just did not take me long to see if it was sharp!”

My dad just laughed. My brother and I thought it was amazing that Ralph did not burn his fingers! Later when we were telling this to my mother, my dad told us that he got burned but just did not want to admit to it. Dad said Ralph did not want to look foolish in front of us kids, because he had done something that he was not supposed to do!

We as Christians are like that. We do not ever want to admit that we are wrong. This is what the world often sees about us and therefore labels us as hypocrites. How much better for us and the church if we would just say. “I am wrong.” However, we do not want to look foolish. God knows we are foolish and yet he will forgive us when we admit we are wrong. That is just one of the many wonderful things about God. He no longer remembers our sins when we ask Him for forgiveness. How wonderful to be saved by His grace and not our foolish actions.

Prayer
“Father, We thank you that you loved us so much that you send your son to die for us sinners. We thank you that we can call upon you at any time of night or day and you are there for us. We are ever so grateful that you never recall our past mistakes to us. Help us to never be afraid to say I was wrong or I am sorry. Help us to always have your love shining out of us. In Jesus name. Amen.”

the Church Mouse
Work hard! Pray harder!