East & West

Our house is near Interstate 40, which makes travelling easy for us. We can just hop on for a few miles and get across town, or even head west to Memphis or east to Nashville. But sometimes I get confused about where I am and which way I’m headed. I come up to the interstate and panic as I try to think if I need to head east for two miles or west for two miles.

Sometimes I chuckle because east and west is all a matter of perspective. To my parents who live in Memphis, Jackson is in the east. But to our friends who have moved to Nashville, they have left us behind in the west.

No matter how directly confused I get, I like to think about the forgiveness of God as I travel east and west on the interstate.

Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

The east and west never meet. The Lord doesn’t ignore our sin, rather, when we repent, He removes it from us. He doesn’t just shuffle it to the side in order to toss it back at us at later date, either.

We have the opportunity to serve a merciful, forgiving Heavenly Father. No wonder that passage in Psalm 103 begins and ends with “My soul, praise Yahweh, and all that is within me, praise His holy name.”

Take time today to meditate on how God has removed your transgressions.