The longer we wait to make our peace with God and with our neighbors - in other words, to repent - the harder it gets to do so. A true story illustrates this.
One day a little boy named Julian fell down while chasing butterflies in a field of tall grass.
- Soon afterward, the boy's left eye started hurting. They took him to the doctor. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong, so he just gave Julian some ointment and sent him home.
- Eventually Julian's eye problem went away.
- About a year later, though, the boy started complaining of cloudy vision.
His parents took him to an eye specialist, who was stunned by what he discovered.
- Apparently when Julian had fallen a year earlier, a tiny grass seed had implanted itself in his cornea.
- Slowly the seed had grown and had actually sprouted two little leaves in Julian's eye. The seed had to be removed immediately in order to save the boy's vision.
Sin, in its many forms of selfishness, has a way of implanting itself into our hearts and growing into something that can do permanent damage.
It can blur our vision and cause us to take our eyes off Christ and his will.
When we repent, we take ourselves to God just as Julian was taken to the eye specialist.
Only when we repent can God, with his grace, surgically remove our sins and heal the damage they are causing to our minds and hearts, and in turn to those around us.
The longer we wait to repent, the more damage we do, and the harder it becomes to make our way to the doctor's office.
[Story adapted from Hot Illustrations, Copyright 2001 Youth Specialties]