Sin Leaves Scars
There's a story told about a farmer who wanted to teach his little boy about anger. He started having his son hammer a nail in the fence every time he lost his temper. The fence was quickly filled with nails, but after a while, the boy was able to control his temper. The day came when he finally went the entire day without losing his temper. The Dad had him pull a nail out for every day he controlled his temper.
Some time later, the boy - now older and wiser - proudly showed his father the fence. Every nail had been removed. The father looked at the fence and told his son, "Now, look at the fence - what do you see?" "Holes", the son replied. The father then made this point: "Just as your anger has passed, so now all of the nails are gone. But, just as the nails leave holes, so too will your anger leave scars."
One of the truly wonderful aspects of the love of God, is in the area of forgiveness. Once a sin is forgiven, in God's eyes, it is gone. The problem is with the physical consequences. For example, a drunk driver who has killed an innocent victim can ask for and receive forgiveness. The sin is gone and we can have great peace from that, but the "scars" remain. Like the holes in the fence, the "hole" that the lost life leaves will always be there, and we will always remember.
This, I believe, is one of the main reasons that sin is sin - it comes with consequences that God would spare us from. Each one of us carries scars from past sins, and every decent person would go back and change those hurtful things that we have done in the past if we could... but we can't. So, the solution is to do our best with the rest of our life.
Someday, the faithful will be in heaven - not because we deserve it, but because God has made arrangements for the faithful. We've all caused more than our share of these scars in the past. The question is what will we do with the rest of our time?
A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty. Psalms 19:19; Here is a trustworthy statement that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners... I Timothy 1:15, NIV
