Ten-year-olds hold a special place in my heart. I guess that’s why I enjoyed teaching fifth graders. My husband often teases that he’s married to a fifth-grader since my sense of humor refuses to grow up. I think he should just be glad I didn’t teach kindergarten.
While I love elementary school kids, they have a few annoying habits. One habit I couldn’t get them to change was not erasing a word or number completely, leaving behind scraggly eraser crumbs, and then writing on top of them. I kept asking them to erase their mistakes thoroughly and flick away those crumbs so I could read what they wrote. I should be grateful to live in the modern age. Before erasers were attached to the ends of pencils, people used breadcrumbs to erase graphite marks on paper. And nobody likes that kind of mess.
This use of rubber as an eraser was discovered quite by accident. Edward Nairne grabbed a piece of rubber instead of a breadcrumb and realized it erased much better. Soon, erasers were produced and eventually attached to the ends of pencils. I hope Edward didn’t pick up a piece of rubber thinking it was bread. That would have put a bounce in his step! (There’s that fifth-grade humor.)
Knowing that God sent Jesus, the Bread of Life, to be the Great Eraser of all our sins should put a bounce in the step of every devoted believer. Colossians 2:14 in The Passion Translation inspires us all to jump up and cheer, “He [Jesus] canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.” How incredible it is to know that ALL our sins are erased! Realizing this makes us love Him more, and loving Him more makes us less eager to sin. What a great trade!
When God uses the Bread of Life to thoroughly erase our sins, He doesn’t leave us with all the crumbs. His compassionate hand of love flicks them far away. “His unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalms 103:11-12 NLT) This isn’t just a one-time deal at sign-up. Sure, our past sins were forgiven and erased the moment we allowed Jesus to become our Lord. And yes, that placed us in good standing with God. But our present sins are also forgiven the moment we confess them. “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9 NLT) Reckon why we often have to hear the Spirit whisper repeatedly, “You are forgiven. You can let go of that now.”
A fascinating World War II story describes how specially designed pencils helped prisoners of war escape and find their way home. A British pencil company hid small compasses in the erasers and escape maps inside the hollowed-out cylinders. These became known as “spy pencils.” As a side note, Ian Fleming heard this story and was inspired to create the gadget-making character Q in his famous James Bond novels.
No one picks up a pencil intending to make a mistake. But when it happens, it’s comforting to know we have an eraser on the other end. Similarly, we may surrender our lives to Jesus and still occasionally step into sin. You might think you’ve become a prisoner of Satan, and your name has been erased from the Book of Life because of all your stray marks, but take heart—Jesus has provided the one and only escape route, and the Holy Spirit acts as our compass, leading us safely home. God’s great love for us allows Jesus’ grace to completely erase the stain, flick it away, and continue writing a story that inspires others to know Him.
If you could pick just one word to describe what haunts you most, what would it be? Rejection? Insecurity? Lust? Greed? Abuse? Pride? Write that word on a piece of paper. Then, erase it and flick away the crumbs. Remember that just as the eraser gave up part of itself to erase your pain, God gave up part of Himself when He sent Jesus to the cross to erase your sin. His love can’t be erased!
“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.” (Romans 5:8-9 NLT)
