Anyone who follows me on Facebook knows how much I like corny humor. Many of the memes I share include puns or slightly twisted cartoons. In the midst of life’s seriousness and struggles, laughter is vital to maintaining some sense of sanity.
One cartoon I shared a while back featured an earthquake in an Etch A Sketch art gallery. I don’t remember if it was from Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” or someone else, but all the screens were blank following the shaking. The viewer can only wonder what great intricate drawings existed prior to the great disturbance.
I remember playing with one of these toys as a kid and would often shake it vigorously to erase my mistakes so that I could start over on a new image. Apparently many variations of Etch A Sketches exist today and some are quite sophisticated. I’ll even bet some of them come with a “quake protection” option to keep a sibling from accidentally (or purposefully) destroying many hours of intense artwork. (Not that that ever happened to me).
As I reflected on this clever cartoon, it occurred to me how it illustrates a great spiritual truth. Before we meet Jesus, we all sketch out our lives in various ways. Regardless of the time and effort we put in, glaring flaws mar the artwork of our own making and in many cases what we have created is a horrible mass of crooked and tangled lines.
Sadly, instead of only one screen filled with mistakes, our lives resemble a whole art gallery of sin and selfishness. Anyone allowed to peruse the recesses of our minds’ museums of the past can easily observe our many failed attempts at getting our life’s drawings just right.
Thankfully, there’s been an earthquake! When Jesus poured out His sinless blood on Calvary’s cross, He provided the seismic energy capable of erasing all of our flaws and errors. His perfect sacrifice completely deletes all of our sins and offers us an opportunity to make a fresh start with a clean screen.
Because of God’s limitless grace, there’s not a single image from our past His blood can’t delete regardless of how deeply it may be chiseled into our memory. I once visited a person who confessed that there wasn’t a sin they hadn’t committed. This individual was concerned that God might not have enough forgiveness for all that had been done. My guess is that we all feel that way at times. I assured that person then and all readers now of the truth of I John 1:9, that, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Notice that the forgiveness of our sins offered in this verse hinges on our confession of them. Unlike an Etch A Sketch screen that cannot resist being erased by a random earthquake, we must consciously choose to ask for God’s liberating gift of grace. Taken with the rest of Scripture, there’s the expectation of turning from, or repenting of, our sin as well. As we take these important steps, however, we are assured of God’s merciful and extravagant forgiveness for not just some, but all of our sins.
One of the most amazing aspects of this event is that during the earthquake, God imparts to us our own Tutor to guide our fingers as we redraw our lives in Him. This Divine Assistant is better known as the Holy Spirit and as we allow Him to turn our knobs, a beautiful picture emerges far beyond our own ability to sketch or paint.
As we remember this childhood toy, may it remind us of God’s power to shake up our lives, erase our sin, and redraw something of everlasting beauty for His glory.
Blessings, George