All the messes of life meet their end at the cross of Jesus Christ.

By clicking on this SoundCloud link you can listen to today’s PWTE devotion

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!”
Psalm 51:1-2 English Standard Version

Alright, so this is a slightly different twist on yesterday’s PWTE daily devotional blog. We spent time yesterday considering the questions, what do you do when life is broken? Today I want to address a similar issue only in a more specific way.

Who cleans up the mess that you and I make of our lives?

Pucallpa, Peru

These vultures did a fair job of cleaning up some of the mess on the shore of the Ucayali River. I say pretty good because these vultures were picky. As I stood on the deck of our boat taking these pictures, a man dumped a bucket of trash on the ground. Immediately a group of vultures descended on this feast, then left as quickly with a mess still spread on the dirt.

We act like these vultures when we try to clean up our messy lives by ourselves. Life might get better for a while, but there’s plenty of trash still lying around. We’re still haunted by our past mistakes that lie scatter on the ground like the leftover trash.

King David had coveted someone else’s wife, committed adultery and had her husband killed in battle to cover up her pregnancy. When confronted with his sin, he knew he couldn’t clean up his mess. His only hope was in his God. It was his God who forgave him.

There were consequences for his sin, but it was not counted against him. Through Christ our sin is forgiven. Nothing is left on the ground. Sin cannot separate us from God. Christ was separated from his Father on the cross so that we might live with the faith that holds to the promise of forgiveness.

Empowered by this gift of forgiveness we live differently as we respond in gratitude to our God who cleans up our mess.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner