ONE of the toys our three year old grandchild has been picking up recently is one of these magnetic screens where you can draw and write what you like and no matter what it is, it can be removed at a stroke by pushing a slide from left to right and the screen cleans itself for another time.

Something to do with iron filings and a magnetic force I understand.

Not that it was a present he received, more a toy he came across as the item if I remember correctly was a present for his big sister some time ago.

It reminded me of the old-fashioned teacher blackboards which would often set your teeth on edge as you heard the screeches made as the chalk was removed and the blackboard cleared for its next use.

Wiping the slate clean is a phrase still often used these days and I guess it goes back to the time when chalk was used on a slate surface and then wiped clean again.

It gives the illustration of what Jesus, God’s Son, has already done for you and me. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet’, the song goes, ‘they shall be as white as snow.’ And there are no exceptions.

Whatever we may have suffered in life, all the wrongs done to us, all the acts of disobedience and of anger that we may have done. All the things we knew in our hearts were wrong but we did them anyway. Our slate too can be wiped clean. Jesus paid the price for them and we go free.

And not only are we free, but the guilt and any shame associated with them are gone too, never to be held against us or remembered. That is the magic of the gospel of forgiveness and of God’s love for each one of us.

I was at a funeral this week and I urge you to consider these things before you find life ending for you.

You will have missed so much without the opportunity of setting things right and finding the way to eternal life with Jesus beyond the grave.