goodbye guilt

I sat in the quiet of the living room, immersed in nearly complete darkness but for a few glowing embers in the fireplace. Everyone had gone to bed, but weighed down with a load of guilt and strain I had tip-toed, pencil and paper in hand, up the stairs to enjoy the last minutes of the fire in some prayer and contemplation.
I aimlessly scribbled on my paper each specific sin or action I felt guilt and shame for. I crumpled up the paper and threw it near a glowing coal. Within seconds it burst into flames.

The fire almost instantly consumed that paper. My load was reduced to a crumple of ashes. I marveled at this visual reminder and realization that God's burning love has completely consumed my sins.

I love how it's put in Psalm 103:12. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

My Sunday School teacher brought it into a whole new light for me. A number of years ago, I was talking to him about this verse and he said, "How far the east is from the west? Well, if you start walking straight west and keep on walking...years from now, you'll still be walking west. And if you're walking east, you can keep on walking east forever. Basically, God's communicating here that His forgiveness mounts an infinite wall between us and our sins."

I tip-toed back down the stairs that night, my paper of guilt nothing more but a few black flakes in the fireplace, and my sins consumed and blotted out by the blood that died to put an infinite distance between me and my guilt.