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January 31, 2015

He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Proverbs 28:13

When I was a little girl, I'd go to the store with my great aunt.  I don't really remember much about our trips to the store.  But one thing I do remember is her egg examining custom.  She would open the egg carton, and examine all eggs.  If there was one with a crack, she would either put back the entire container or exchange the one cracked egg from that container with a solid egg from another carton.  To this day, when I shop for eggs, I practice this custom.

I always thought that was odd. But I never questioned it.  The older I got, the more I deduced her reasoning for doing this must be about the quality of the eggs.  Cracked eggs are like sliced fruit, more likely to go bad faster.

The thing I notice about a cracked egg is that if left unattended, the crack continues to get bigger and bigger until it gets to the point that the egg breaks.  That is incredible.  The crack in the egg doesn't stop until it eventually breaks the egg.  Not only that, but a cracked egg breaks much more easily than a solid egg.

Remind you of sin?  One tiny little sin can lead to a crack in your character.  If the sin continues to go uncorrected, it can lead to more sin, which can eventually lead to a break.  When we continue in sin, we are much farther away from God, thus we are much more fragile.  When we are in close relationship with God, working on turning away from our sins, we are better able to stand firm in Him, and less susceptible to the crack of sin.

The beauty of God is that He is able to heal our cracks.  He did it through Jesus.  In Him, God heals and mends.  He fills in the cracks with what we need in order to be less vulnerable to a break. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.  Much like a cracked egg, when we continue in sin, we will eventually reach a breaking point.  A broken egg means the end for an egg.  The egg will either be eaten or thrown out.  The egg shell will never be whole again, and it will no longer be useful.

Fortunately for us, we have Jesus.  Although continued sin can take a tiny crack and turn it into a break, Jesus is far more.  He who makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), has the ability to fill in the cracks and mend the broken pieces.  Jesus is able to make us whole again, and therein lies the hope.

PAG