Read It, Learn It,
Live It, Share It
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us.” – Psalm 103:12
The sun had
just come over the horizon and was casting shadows throughout the room when the
alarm clock went off. Groggy, my eyes
still adjusting to the newness of light cascading through the window I fumbled
on the night stand looking for my glasses. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes and
trying to relax the muscles, I started to pry them open despite their intent on
staying closed. Soon enough I was able
to sit up in bed and finding the remote control I turned on the TV. When the images registered in my brain I was
suddenly no longer tired and my eyes were completely alert. I flipped the channel to a different station
and the same images were being displayed.
I was watching as the plane hit the second building and fire exploded
out the other side. Moments passed as my
mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
For the next few hours I was frozen to my TV in that small hotel room in
Anaheim, California. Two thousand seven
hundred and eighty six miles away our country was under attack. Immediately my mind started thinking of my
family in Texas, 1,550 miles away and my family in Michigan, 2,300 miles
away. I had no ability to get to them,
nor vice versa. I thought of the other
planes in the sky headed from New York or Boston to the West Coast (LA or San
Francisco) and how long it would take them to fly the 2,700 miles? If there were other terrorists on other
planes would we be able to thwart their actions before they hit their targets?
Were any of the targets on the West Coast?
That was a day that is lodged into the minds of people all over the
world in different ways, whether they were American or not.This got me to thinking about the sheer size of this globe we are on. When something happens in Libya or Syria or Indonesia, 10,000 miles away; what impact does it have on me? How long is it before I am made aware of something that happens half way around the globe? In today’s world of electronic communications and social media it is almost instantaneous for the speed of electrons and light to travel around the globe to carry data to someone in a far away land. Have you ever thought about the distance around the globe along the line of the equator? It is estimated that the earth is close to 25,000 miles around in an easterly or westerly path. If I left Houston, Texas on a plane and headed West, how far could I travel before I could no longer head West? Same thing when traveling in an Easterly direction. There is no limit, as there is when one is traveling North or South. When you travel North, eventually you are going to reach the North pole and then you will begin traveling South, and likewise when you are traveling South, eventually you will come to the South pole and will being traveling North again.
So, when the Psalmist (assumed to be David) wrote this, how did he realize that there was no limit to the East/West travel? Did he realize long before Galileo, or Christopher Columbus that the earth indeed was round? When the scripture says “as far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” it is saying that your sins are no longer. They have been removed infinitely far away and you are free from carrying the burden. How did David know that this phrase meant infinitely far away? This verse was written thousands of years before Columbus set sail over the horizon to discover the “New World”, yet David's quill put ink upon papyrus stating this fact.
There is comfort in knowing that my sins are completely washed away and forgotten. It is only in my mind that they remain, because I choose to retain the thought and guilt from the sin. God has washed me clean and no longer perceives my transgressions. I need to come to the realization that through Christ’s blood, I am redeemed and accepted by my Father. What are you holding onto today that God has cast away infinitely? Pray for healing from that sin and put it down once and for all.
For an archive of Daily Thoughts go to: http://www.10minutereader.com
No comments:
Post a Comment