The other day Terry asked me to hand him one of the new Magic Erasers we bought at the hardware store. These things are amazing. Small, white erasers. I asked Terry, “What exactly do these do?” Terry grinned at me and said, “Well, they basically clean up all my messes. They erase any mistakes or messes, magically.”
I just stared at him and said, “Wow. Wish we could have one of those to magically erase life mistakes!”
Both of us have made some really big messes from mistakes we made and they are costing us, to this day. We trusted the wrong people. We believed those people would come around and do the right thing. We believed they would tell the truth. When these people showed up in life to be villains rather than the good guys, Terry and I realized trusting people who choose evil over truth broke our ability to trust in many ways.
After receiving some upsetting news, Terry read a message to me. It isn’t often I find myself without words. But we were so shocked by this news, there were no words. Terry, in good faith, trusted someone, who in turn took terrible advantage of Terry’s trust and belief in this person to do the right thing. I wanted to magically erase the hurt and problems caused by this. It will likely take years now, for us to resolve this mess caused by someone who broke and abused Terry’s kindness and patience. When I think about what this person did and wonder how he looks at himself in the mirror or sleeps at night, I realize only God can redeem this.
God is the magic eraser who will take care of every single wrong we have ever endured.
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” - Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)
I know God is not going to magically erase what this person did, but He is a God of justice. It makes me want to toss my cookies, when I think about how horribly this person has behaved and what he has done. I want to fire off a message to him and say, “We are two steps ahead. We know about your lies. We know what you have done. We will never trust you again and I’m going to tell anyone with ears, who will listen, so they know better than to ever trust you!”
But that would accomplish nothing, and it would make me vengeful. Our Heavenly Father … our precious Papa longs to be gracious to us. While we are going through what we are, Terry and I know God will shape our faith to honor Him, along the way. There are no magic erasers for trusting the wrong people, but there are magical blessings for placing our trust in Him. “For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
It is hard to wait for God’s justice. In fact, we may never even see it on this side of His Kingdom. But I want to be one of the blessed ones who wait for Him. I want to honor Him in our waiting because He magically erased all of my sins and He sees Terry and me both as some of His precious children. We don’t deserve that, so the least we can do is trust in His justice and wait for Him.
Dear friend, I don’t know what it is you are facing to make you, too, wish for a Magic Eraser in your life, but that pain you are experiencing will be rewarded one day. That trust someone broke will be restored when you put your trust in God’s hands.