I drove down to the shops for some last minute
Christmas shopping today. The weather was dreadful, the traffic heavy and I had
to take a detour. In an attempt to get back on the right road I took an
unfamiliar turning and was surprised to recognise where I was.
Last summer I had a row with my wife and girls.
Boiling with anger I went for a run and had taken the same route as I took this
morning. I can remember being there, I can remember being very angry, almost
the angriest I can ever remember being, but for the life of me I can't remember
what I was angry about.* What ever it was
about, and it seemed important enough at the time, has long since been
swallowed up in the deep, loving relationship I have with my wife; God's
greatest gift to me after salvation.
I wonder if this is what it's like for God. Many
Christians believe that, when God forgives our sins he also forgets them. The
bible tells us that love doesn't keep a record of wrongs (1Corinthians 13:5)
and, in Jeremiah, the Lord says,
"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:34).How an all knowing God might forget anything is a mystery (presumably it is an act of his own will). I've always seen this forgetting by God in dry theological terms. How can God forget anything? Today I saw it in personal ones. Why would God want to remember the forgiven sins of those he loves?
*As I remember it, I was wholly in the right and everybody else wholly in the wrong, but my judgement on these things isn't perfect.