-“Erased”-

We recently commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. I barely remember the event. I was a kid playing with army men & space men & thought it was cool and all but it seemed to take forever! What can I say, I was a kid & the several day trip seemed an eternity. Forget the astronauts were traveling 238,857 miles from earth & speeding at over 17,000mph. I’m not sure if I remember seeing the actual footage from the landing or later airings. Whichever, it was something hearing Neal Armstrong say, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

You probably remember the furor that ensued as some people swore it was all rigged. Some said it wasn’t possible & it was all filmed on a sound stage somewhere in Arizona or some such. The real kicker came recently when we found the original footage from the moon landing had been erased! Talk about a goof up! That’s worse than some stupid husband taping the Super Bowl over the video of his wedding tape! Seems the technicians had few tapes & didn’t see the need to hang on to the historic record!

From 4 different locations NASA scrambled & found some of the actual footage sent down. Ironically, they enlisted the help of Hollywood to enhance the footage. They took pains in not going over the top with the restoration, as some already thought Hollywood filmed it in the first place! Fortunately there was some footage to salvage.

"Now it's time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus."
Act 3: 19-20 The Message

We’ve all taped over, erased, or otherwise lost something very important at some time or another. In direct contract, we’ve probably WISHED we had lost, erased or otherwise not said or done something. I’m sure you’ve wished that you could wipe away the slate & start over. Maybe it was a relationship jeopardized over careless words or an action you wish you could rewind & redo!

The Apostle Peter gave a powerful message in Acts 3 where he shared the only way to be right with God was to turn to Him & let Him wipe away your sins. It’s a beautiful picture of a slate that is wiped cleaned. A fresh start is the only way to receive God’s blessings. The Apostle John also painted the same picture of forgiveness in one of his letters. He challenged that the only way to a right standing with God was to straight up admit we sin & let God make us right. He said, “if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." I John 1:9 NLT

While it was a really stupid move on some technician’s part to erase the record of Neal Armstrong’s first bouncy step on our moon, at least it was somehow salvaged. Thankfully we can have our lives & relationships salvaged as God, in contrast, wipes our stupidity clean!


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