Thursday, March 28, 2024

God's Infinite Mercy

A missionary on one of the islands was sitting in his cool seaside hut one day when one of the village women came in, carrying a handful of dripping sand she had just picked up off the beach.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked. “It looks like sand,” said the missionary. “Do you know why I brought it here?” she asked. “No. I can’t imagine why,” the padre answered.

“Well, these are my sins,” the women explained. “My sins are as countless as the sands of the sea. How can I ever obtain forgiveness for all of them?”

“You got that sand down by the shore, didn’t you?” said the missionary. “Well, take it back there, and pile it up into a heaping mound of sand at the water’s edge. Then you sit back and watch the tide come in and slowly wash away the pile altogether. That is how God’s forgiveness works.”

In Isaiah 1:18 God says to the people: “Now, let’s settle this matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool.”