When I retired, I made my library available to several people. One individual who received a number of books has returned a few things he found inside of them. One he gave me just recently was a handwritten note from one of my daughters, which I had used as a bookmark. It was written in the form of a letter on pink paper, and it was from when she was nine years old.
From the context, it seems to have been written when I was out of town for a conference. It also appears that she had done something wrong, for which I had punished her. The folded paper was addressed like an letter to “Dad Mattil.” And this is what she wrote.
“Dear Rev. Michael Mattil, I missed you a lot. I think mom missed you too. I would like ot show you something in the liveing room as soon as you are ready. I love you a lot. I stil love you! Your Daughter, Bethany Hope Mattil.”
She also drew a heart in which she wrote again “I stil love you” and added a bunch of stars. It made me smile when I saw it, so I took some pictures of it and sent them to Bethany. We talked about it, and neither one of us could remember the circumstances.
As I thought about it, I recalled the words of the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 31 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. For God, it is not a case of not being able to remember our sins. It is a conscious choice on His part to forgive and forget. Those who have heard about Jesus and put their faith in Him are the ones who take advantage of God’s forgiveness that keeps no record of our wrongs.
