When we were nine or ten years old, my cousin and I had a very special place we loved to play. Her parents had a hardware store just off the town square. Beneath the hardware store was a basement with access of very steep steps that went down from the inside at the back of the store. There was always a lot of hardware junk down there but enough room for us to play. We spent hours after school playing there. One of our favorite things also was making up plays to perform, although we were never allowed to have anyone else come and watch them. We really loved singing and dancing to a particular song called “Abba Dabba Honeymoon”. It was about two monkeys who went on a honeymoon. It was a catchy little song and was played very frequently on the radio and we knew every word and would sing it at the top of our lungs while dancing around like a couple of monkeys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJHJAkhacGU
Cousin and I also played a lot in my backyard. Her mother worked in their hardware store so she would come and spend the afternoons at my house. I remember that we didn’t get along some of the time and would eventually get into a big argument and maybe a pushing and shoving match. One particular afternoon, just after my parents had some linoleum tile put down in our kitchen, my cousin and I got into a very heated argument. She picked up a piece of the leftover tile that was lying in the yard. With one wild swing she caught my head just above my eye with that piece of tile and cut a big, bleeding gash. I have the scar to this day. Needless to say, our playing for that afternoon was over very quickly.
Years later, after my Cousin and I both had married, our family went to Texas to visit her family. By then, we both had daughters who were very near the same age. Those two little girls were very much like my cousin and me. On this particular visit, the two little girls decided it would be great fun to jump up and down on the bed. So, jump and squeal they did! During the rowdy play, her daughter pushed my daughter into the head of the bed and, yep, you guessed it, that incident left a big gash just above the eye of my daughter; a scar that she still wears today.
Cousin and I also played a lot in my backyard. Her mother worked in their hardware store so she would come and spend the afternoons at my house. I remember that we didn’t get along some of the time and would eventually get into a big argument and maybe a pushing and shoving match. One particular afternoon, just after my parents had some linoleum tile put down in our kitchen, my cousin and I got into a very heated argument. She picked up a piece of the leftover tile that was lying in the yard. With one wild swing she caught my head just above my eye with that piece of tile and cut a big, bleeding gash. I have the scar to this day. Needless to say, our playing for that afternoon was over very quickly.
Years later, after my Cousin and I both had married, our family went to Texas to visit her family. By then, we both had daughters who were very near the same age. Those two little girls were very much like my cousin and me. On this particular visit, the two little girls decided it would be great fun to jump up and down on the bed. So, jump and squeal they did! During the rowdy play, her daughter pushed my daughter into the head of the bed and, yep, you guessed it, that incident left a big gash just above the eye of my daughter; a scar that she still wears today.
The scars of sin are much like the gashes on our heads. The consequences are felt and sometimes visible for the rest of our lives. But, even though we may wear the scars of our sins, our Savior can come into our hearts and cleanse our heart of all the sins of our past, present and our future.
We are all born with sin in our lives. Our hearts are not turned toward Jesus when we come from our Mother’s womb. Until we have “open heart surgery” though the blood of Jesus Christ, our hearts will remain deceitful.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 NIV
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