East and West

"Mom, how much longer on this airplane?" Danny asked. "I liked seeing our cousins in South Korea, but I feel like we've been on this plane forever!""Let's look." Danny's mom touched the screen in front of her. "It says here we have three more hours to go. Maybe you can practice memorizing your Bible verses while you wait. I know the perfect verse to start with."Mom reached down into her purse under the seat and pulled out a tiny pocket-sized Bible. She cracked it open. "Right here," she said, pointing to Psalm 103. Danny was quiet for a few moments as he read the psalm, but then he looked up and asked, "Mom, what's a transgression? It says here that God removes our transgressions. What does that mean?""That's a great question! Remember how we talked about Jesus dying and coming back to life again to save us? Well, that was when God removed our transgressions, or our sins." "So, transgressions is just a fancy word for sins?" Danny asked. "Yes, and it gets even better. See here in the next line?" Mom pointed to the page. "It says here that God separates us from our sins as far as the east is from the west." Danny looked puzzled for a moment. "But those are opposites!" he proclaimed. "Exactly! You know how we've been on this plane for hours and hours? We've gone all the way from one side of the world to the other. We traveled all the way from the United States in the west to South Korea in the east. And God tells us that He takes our sins even further away from us than that.""Wow! So, God took my sins all the way to the other side of the world?" asked Danny. Mom laughed. "Not exactly. The verse is more of a figure of speech--it's saying that, for those who trust in Jesus, God has removed our sin and made us completely clean and whole in His eyes. He no longer holds our wrongs against us. When God forgives our sins, we are completely separated from them." "Well, that's good, 'cause I don't have any room left in my suitcase to take them home with me!" joked Danny. -Naomi Zylstra