As I remember it, the knife was lying on Dad’s chest of drawers. It was one of those wonderful, shiny penknives that has a sharp blade, a can opener and a file.
It was that sharp blade that attracted my six-year-old mind. I was showing the knife to my little friend, Danny, and I wanted to impress him. I told him that “knives are for cutting.” I wondered what I could test the very sharp blade on to show him.
After checking to make sure my mother and father weren’t around, I decided to try out the knife on something in their closet. Quietly I closed the bedroom door and began to test it out on my dad’s shoes, then one of his ties, and then some of my mother’s dresses. The blade easily cut through every material without any effort.
I knew what I was doing was wrong, but somehow I blocked out of my mind the thought that I would be punished for what I was doing. Besides, I could tell that Danny seemed quite impressed, and that encouraged me to test that penknife blade on other things.
How often Satan leads us on by helping us forget that what we are doing is really sin, or that it doesn’t matter as long as we don’t get caught. But the Bible reminds us, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:2323But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23).
Danny and I went from the bedroom into the bathroom. The knife easily slit the shower curtain and the vinyl top of the clothes hamper. Then we headed to the living room. The last thing I tested it on was the big leather chair. Then I quietly put the knife back on my father’s chest of drawers as if nothing had happened, and Danny and I went out to play.
I thought there were only two people who knew what I had done Danny and me. But there was Another who had watched the whole thing. The Bible tells us that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:33The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3). God had seen everything.
There were very sad results to what I had done. My mother cried when she saw everything I had ruined, and my father was very upset. I was miserable and had to be punished.
In looking back at that terrible incident in my childhood, I am thankful to say that the Lord Jesus bore the punishment in His own body for that awful sin. But that wasn’t the only sin of mine that He suffered for. He was punished for all my sins, because I know that He loves me and I believe that He washed away every one of my sins in His blood that He shed on the cross. “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).
Thankfully the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and “He restoreth my soul.” The Lord Jesus did restore my soul, and the miserable feeling went away even though, after almost 30 years, the big leather chair still has the little slit in it.
ML-05/24/1992