We were at the YMCA of the Rockies this week for a (working) getaway, and I saw for the first time a little trail behind one of the chapels marked out with the familiar ACTS prayer acrostic: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. As I wrote yesterday, I’ve been meditating on our status as forgiven sinners. Here’s the trail sign with its exercise for Confession and forgiveness.

So I knelt in front of the sandbox, wrote some sins into the sand, confessed them to God, then erased them. Very profound if you think about it. There’s no technology that will restore writing in the sand that has been erased! 

My scripture reading for today was John 8.1 – 11, Jesus’ encounter with the woman taken in adultery. The obvious takeaway is “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” But here’s another. Much speculation has centered around what Jesus was writing in the sand. I’ve heard more than one preacher suggest that Jesus was writing the sins of the accusers, and that’s why they felt guilty and left. 

But the good news is, that if Jesus had written their sins in the sand, he was communicating, “You can be forgiven, too! It’s just sand.” Paul confessed in 1 Timothy 1.15, he was one of those kinds of guys! A judgmental Pharisee. And Jesus forgave his sins. And mine. And yours. 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace… (Ephesians 1.7, ESV)