WHEN GOD FORGETS
by David Sisler
Over breakfast one morning, a woman said to her husband, "I bet you don't know what day this is."
"Of course I do," he indignantly replied. He immediately stood, walked out of the house, slammed the door, and went to his office.
At 10 a.m., the doorbell rang. When the woman opened the door a delivery man handed her a box containing a dozen long-stemmed red roses. Two hours later, a second delivery service presented the woman with a box of her favorite chocolates. Still later, a boutique delivered a designer dress.
The woman couldn't wait for her husband to come home. When he walked through the door, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. "Darling," she said, "this is the best Ground Hog Day I've ever had!"
We have a wonderful capacity for forgetting. We not only forget our spouse's birthday or our wedding anniversary, we forget each other's names and faces, we forget addresses and telephone numbers, we forget appointments. The list is endless.
We do have a wonderful capacity for remembering. The human brain can absorb one word every second, continuously, for a million years. We have the capacity to absorb 10,000 thoughts each and every day. And this is true in spite of the fact that those of us over 35 are loosing 100,000 brain neurons every day!
Let me ask you a few questions.
Where were you the first Saturday night of last month?
What are the numbers on your car tags?
Does your watch have Roman or Arabic numbers?
When is your father's birthday?
Where did you have lunch last Wednesday?
What was my first question?
Does God also forget? It is a frightening thing to think there are things which may slip out of God's memory, but the Bible says God has the capacity for forgetfulness.
What does God forget? He never forgets His universe. He has a million solar systems to look after with stars as numberless as the sands of the seashore, but He never forgets one of them.
God never forgets a single one of His children. God remembers to clothe the lily and coffin the sparrow. He assures us we are of more value than many, many sparrows. He remembers what we have forgotten. God knows where you live. He knows your sorrows. He knows where it hurts. He has not forgotten you.
What, then, does God forget? God forgets only one thing - confessed sin. He declared it first through the prophet Jeremiah and then repeated it through the writer of Hebrews: "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
There was no possibility of her innocence. The woman was caught in the act of adultery. The penalty under the Law was stoning. For reasons that are never explained, the officials who caught her, allowed the man, her partner in adultery, to escape. The woman was brought to Jesus, literally dragged before Him, and thrown into the midst of a group of men He had been teaching.
While she frantically tried to regain some dignity and recover a portion of modesty, the religious leaders demanded, "Moses commanded us in the Law to stone such a woman. What do you say, Jesus?"
"The one of you," Jesus answered, "who has never sinned, and at this moment has no sin in his life, you throw the first stone at her."
When all of the men had left Jesus said, "Is there no one left to condemn you?"
"No, Lord," she replied.
"Neither do I condemn you," Jesus said.
And then He added, "Go home and from this point onward, stop practicing sin."
It is on that basis God forgives sin and then forgets the sin He has forgiven. How often have you said, "I don't trust my own memory?" Well, why don't you trust God's forgetfulness?
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Copyright 2001 by David Sisler. All Rights Reserved.
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