A while back, when my grandkids came to spend the weekend. My granddaughter came crying and said her brother had hit her. At that point, I was overwhelmed with this constant battle, and I did not want to keep reprimanding him; that was not how I wanted to use this precious time.

I asked him why he continued to harass his sister; he looked at me through his big beautiful eyes and said, “I don’t know” I asked him to write on a piece of paper everything he did wrong; he was very young, I thought he couldn’t have had too much to jot down, but his eyes widened, and he said, “Nana, there is a lot, it will take forever ” I couldn’t keep my face stern. Still, my eyes showed I couldn’t lie; I was laughing inside.

I gave him my notebook and told him to write everything he could remember; I reassured him that I would not look at what he wrote. He was a bit confused as to why I was asking him to do this if I wasn’t going to read it, but I insisted he does it. After a few minutes, he came to me with his sister by his side with a cocky smirk on her face; she wanted to see justice served to her brother for everything he ever did to her in all his short years!

I did not even glance at his writing, but I shared with him that as the years go by, he will make many more mistakes, and when he dies at an old age, God will have a more significant piece of paper. My grandson became fearful, and my granddaughter’s smirk somehow disappeared and turned even more alarming. After all, she is one year older than her brother; she also grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down her stuff. But I said there is a way to erase everything. Both of them were anxious to know how this was possible. I asked them if they knew why Jesus died on the Cross. They both said He died for our sins, but they did not know what sins were, so I lifted their papers, and they both understood. I said, if you ask Jesus to forgive you and come into your heart, He will erase everything, and when you die at an old age, God will still have a very long piece of paper. They looked at me and asked why God still had that page with everything on it. I said, yes, God will still have the page, but He won’t be able to see everything you did because everything will be covered with the Blood of Jesus. I turned the page over and said, it will look like this; it was a blank page.

When I looked at the blank page, I choked up, and my eyes filled with tears because I then realized this lesson was not only for them but for me. I have accomplished more sins than they can in two lifetimes. So I took their papers, shredded them into tiny pieces, and tossed them in the garbage can.

It’s funny how the devil always reminds us of our sins, like a prosecutor in a court of law. However, Jesus, our Defender, stands by our side, reminding the devil of how He defeated him when He died on the Cross and rose from the grave. And we forget our sins had already been atoned for when we accepted Christ as our Savior today, yesterday, or years ago. After this moment, the day seemed lighter, and we enjoyed the rest of our weekend. Also, what was more impressive was that we all felt light-hearted, and minor offenses didn’t bother us. We had a memorable weekend.

So, if the devil whispers your sins in your head, say aloud, “PAID IN FULL WITH THE BLOOD OF JESUS.”

Please take a moment to read Romans 8, John 3, and 1, John 3.