We are in the midst of burning forty-two years out of fifty-two years of income tax returns with all the supporting documents. It is maple syrup time so all the paper mixed with firewood is one more time making something good. We had carried with us from Iowa to Africa to Georgia to California to Massachusetts all that paper. Finally my wife came up from the basement with her arms stacked high and said, “Enough.”
I must admit there is a bit of nostalgia involved with burning documents from the first house we ever bought along with statements from car loans and college bills for two sons. It feels like a bit of our lives is going up in flames. But really I would never look at them. I certainly have never bothered to sit in the basement looking at old receipts, nor would I.
There are some records in my life that I will never feel any sorrow for their destruction. When we make Jesus the Lord of our lives we can be assured of the following promise in Acts 3. Peter said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” How can we not but respond, “Thems good words.” The real joy of this is God does not look at us as forgiven sinners but as if we had never sinned. How wonderful that is and what a challenge for us in how we respond to people that hurt us. So often we forgive but it is so difficult to not remember. One of my friends told me once that no one had ever hurt him. “Really,” I asked. “Well,” he said, “I don’t recall any.”
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 1, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org