I thought about my parents this morning and once again blamed myself for neglecting them in times they needed me most. They had given me everything in life and did not deserve the way I treated them.
Regret never arrives on time because both my parents had passed away.
Regret also has a tendency never to let go. Even when Jesus says, “I have forgiven you and cleaned your slate,” we would still find time to study the slate in our memory banks.
I forgave myself for what I had done but “regret” manages to come knocking on my door ever so often. It is like a tattoo. We, can forgive ourselves a million times for putting a horrible image on our bodies, but when we look, it would still be there.
It is like burning an ugly photo. It is removed from our eyes but memory doesn’t need eyes to bring it to life all over again.
The bottom line is – people make mistakes, ugly ones at that.
God cannot make mistakes but He also experienced regret one day when He looked at man (Gen 6:6). He was sorry He made him. He cleaned His slate by wiping all from the earth, all except Noah and his family.
He had no regret when He looked at Noah.
God knew that when Adam sinned, a flaw crept into the essence of man – an impossibility to refrain from making mistakes. There is no person on earth without sin (Rom 3:23). Jesus paid the price to have us cleansed and we are clean, though we are still able to manufacture regret simply by making mistakes, sinning again and feeling bad about it.
One positive purpose of regret is that it magnifies the grace of God. It emphasizes His pure love by calling Himself our Father and having us adopted into His family. Jesus provided the adoption papers and signed it on our behalf. All we have to do is accept His signature for our lives.
We should spend our time warning the people around us that the time to get the adoption papers is running out fast. The second flood is imminent and we know it will not be raining water this time.
Praise God, you’ve made the adoption in time! God has no regret when He looks at you now!
However, there are still many people out there, who will experience regret when it would be too late to make a change! What can we do to teach them to discover the true Essence of life in time?