Why is it that as soon as you’re back from the grocery store, you find five more things you’re out of? Picked up three gallons of milk? Well now you need bread. Got the bread? Fine, but you get home to find you should’ve gotten peanut butter. You cross off one item, there are three more. It’s like the list has a sinister mind of its own. It’s just waiting for you to finish the shopping, then it snickers menacingly and gets rid of whatever is left in the tub of butter sitting in your fridge. Or, knowing that you’ve seen seven boxes of cereal in the pantry, it steals all but five crumbs from each box so that you’ve suddenly got a bunch of boxes of cereal dust, but no cereal. I could list other evil things the list does–“the list goes on,” so to speak–but if I did, the list would probably try to shift the blame over to me. It can be wicked like that, the list can.

Incidentally, we all used to have a “wicked list.” Can you imagine having to write down everything wrong we’ve ever done? And the list would just go on! But we don’t have to list any of it when we’ve given it all to Jesus. Everything on that old, wicked list has been crossed off. And I do mean, “crossed.” Our Heavenly Father made that provision through the sacrificial death of his son on a cross of redemption. God said in Isaiah 43:25, “But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins–that’s what I do. I don’t keep a list of your sins,” (The Message).

I’m praising the Lord today for crossing off our wickedness. He took care of our biggest list need. And praising him, too, for the grace he gives to handle all the other little annoyances of life.

Like cereal dust.

Rhonda Rhea rrhea@juno.com