Beneath the SurfaceSample

Picture a giant sheet of white paper that only has one, small black dot in the center of it. What do you think would stand out to you most about the paper? All the white space, or the one little dot?

We, as people, tend to focus on imperfections. It's how we define things. If something has a problem, no matter how little it is, it's what we think about. If you have ten good meals at a restaurant and one bad one, you remember the bad one. If a person gives you ten compliments and one criticism, you will probably focus on the criticism. And if you do something right 99 times, but fail the hundredth time, you likely remember when you felt like you failed.

That's how humans are, but that is not how God is. In today's Scripture reading, God explains that the mistakes we make are "as far as the east is from the west." In other words, our mistakes literally could not be further away from us. God doesn't focus on our imperfections, and God certainly doesn't define us by them. That's something people do . . . not God.

So whenever you start feeling tempted to focus only on your mistakes, remember God's promise is to not just forgive you, but to completely remove the weight of your mistakes from you. God doesn't focus on the times we messed up. Spend time this week and ask God for the ability to start seeing yourself the same way God sees you.