January/February 2018 Issue

Barbara Latta
New Paper
Learning to write requires lots of erasing. Small fingers wrapped around jumbo pencils trace
lines and watch teachers while absorbing the knowledge of language. Constant erasing
wears holes in paper and little minds experience frustration. Mastering the alphabet appears
to never come.
A wise teacher replaces the torn sheet with clean writing material. Starting over means the
previous mistakes are gone and are no longer a reminder of the struggle to learn.
Untarnished, white paper is the gift of an unsoiled beginning.
Peter denied Christ. At the realization of what he did, Peter wept from the depths of his soul.
He repented, but all he knew was his Savior was dead. The words of denial kept
reverberating in his mind with the reminder that the last words his beloved Savior heard from
the voice of his leading disciple was, “I don’t know Him.”
That memory must have pierced Peter like a Roman sword. The fisherman was left with
nothing but the memory of failure and a fishing boat calling for his return. The anchor of
condemnation held him down—but then came Sunday morning. The report of resurrection
was hard to believe, but the Son of God appeared to Peter and forgiveness was proclaimed.
Guilt melted like wax under the hot sun.
Jesus was the wise teacher who gave Peter a new sheet of paper. One never written on, not
dirty or torn and with no eraser marks. Just fresh and pure.
Peter is not the only one to receive this gift. God the Father gives us all unspoiled paper to
write our lives on because His mercies are new every morning. When our own efforts attempt
to wipe out mistakes we end up with a hole in our paper and a bigger mess than we started
out with. But the blood of Jesus is the eraser that wipes away all sin without a trace
left behind.
Rejoice at the beginning of this year that you have a fresh start in the notebook of your life.
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