God's Love Renews Us

 

Welcome February!

The month full of love, the month full of sweet things, the month of pinky stuff. Well, the last thing I mentioned is what I like the most. On the first day of this month, I would like to share a precious moment that tells the love, the sweet things, the pinky stuff far beyond February could ever give.

A few months ago, I prepared the materials for my students next week. As usual, I prepared all the stuff needed, including the PPT slides and worksheets for one week ahead. I got a task to prepare the Math worksheet. The topic was about fractions where I had to make some circles that represent the fraction being asked. I made it in the popular app Ms. Word. I spent 1 hour for making the questions along with the pictures. I chose to make it in the form of a table. I finished at 5.30 pm, then I told my fellow teachers right away. If they found nothing to be fixed, I could just go home. 

When they had done checking the worksheet that I made, I thought it could be printed out as if it was perfect. Unfortunately, it looked like I wasn’t allowed to go home that fast. They told me that there were some numbers that I needed to change. 

Soon I went back to my computer and opened the file again. I tried to fix the worksheet file as quickly as possible. Not only because I was very tired, but because that day was the due date to prepare the worksheets for next week. Then, I tried my best to change some numbers as what my fellow teachers said which I thought would not take so long, but it did. While I was trying to fix them all, it turned out to be a mess. You know, a mess! The format, the table, the position of the circles. Ugghh... I was so done with it, but i couldn’t…

I pushed myself to finish revising the worksheet file by moving some objects, the numbers, and the circles to the right place. But, it became more messy. I didn’t know why, was it my fault that I wasn’t patient enough to fix it or was it the app that didn’t work properly? Because it’s almost dark, I decided to make a new one. I mean, I created the new document then I copied all things that I could copy from the previous document to the new place. You know, the topic and the content are still the same, I just moved them all to the new document. I found it was much easier to make the worksheet in the new blank page rather than fixing the previous one that was already a mess. And yes, I didn’t find any difficulty when I was making the new one. So, I finished pretty fast and it was finally accepted by my fellow teachers to be printed out.

I went back home and shared this story to my friend. She could also feel my frustration when I was revising the worksheet. But then, she told the big point that we can learn from what has happened.

The worksheet that needs to be revised or fixed is like ourselves. When I was trying to revise the worksheet, I felt overwhelmed especially when the things didn’t work as I expected. In other words, I got more panic when I had to rearrange all the things in it in a short time. Since I didn’t like to waste my time any longer, I chose to make the new document instead of fixing the current one.

This is actually similar to what God did with our life. We are sinful men that don’t deserve any good things from God. We are totally a mess. Every effort that we do to fix our life, it doesn’t show any change. Everything we do is always related to sin. We remain as sinful men. We are like the worksheet that became a mess which I couldn’t fix. So much patience is needed to fix it one part by one part, one object by one object.

Thankfully, God is not like us. To be exact, God is not like me. He didn’t only try His best, but He gave His best to save me by sacrificing His life on the cross. He didn't get panic when He found me as a sinful human. Not like me who couldn’t work more slowly to fix all things in the worksheet, God shows His mercy and compassion by giving His own life. Not like me who decided to make the new document rather than fixing the previous one, He is patient to work on my life and leads me to the right path. One Bible verse that reminds me that we are supposed to live this life fully because it's not of what I have done, not my work.

“You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast.” - Ephesians 2:9 

Instead of creating the new human that looks like me, He renews me. He fixes all the errors inside me so that I can live as a new creation. His love renews me.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." - Psalm 51:10

Let's reflect again on God's love for us as we enter this month. Live our life thankfully because He who has renewed us is still working on us to love Him more.

~NB