There is almost nothing better when you are a nine-year-old boy than to have your best friend over for the night and have a good, rowdy pillow fight! Mark was delighted when his mother said, “All right, Danny can spend the night, but you’d better behave!”
It wasn’t long after supper until the two boys were having fun throwing pillows back and forth in Mark’s bedroom. The pillow fight soon moved out of Mark’s room and went from one room to another . . . until the boys found themselves in Mark’s sister’s room. The door had a sign on it which said, “MARY JANE’S ROOM,” with another sign below that said, “KEEP OUT.” But it was too late for the boys to pay much attention to the bottom sign.
This is the way it is with sin. Sometimes we get carried away doing something that may not be wrong in itself, but it may lead us into a place where we don’t belong. The Bible tells us that “a [wise] man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the [unwise] pass on, and are punished” (Proverbs 27:1212A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 27:12)).
Mary Jane’s room was painted pink and had lots of ruffles. There were white shelves on the walls that were full of little glass animals and other things she had collected. “Dust collectors!” her brother called them.
The pillow fight never slowed down, and Danny threw one at Mark, who ducked. The pillow sailed right towards one of those white shelves and knocked down a glass elephant. The boys stopped and stared. . . . The elephant had broken into three pieces!
“Oh no!” said Mark. “Now we’re really in for it!” But wait . . . Danny had an idea. He had heard that nail polish was good to use to stick things together if you were out of glue. And there was a bottle of nail polish right there on Mary Jane’s desk. This sounded like a good idea to Mark, so they put the three broken pieces together with nail polish.
Once the little glass elephant was back in one piece, the boys realized they had made a huge mistake—the elephant was white and the nail polish they had used was red! Now Mary Jane would know for sure! Mark knew they would have to explain what had happened and tell her they were sorry it had happened. And that is just what they did.
As Christians, we know from God’s Word, the Bible, that it never pays to try to cover up our sins, for God sees everything and we cannot hide our wrongdoings from Him. However, if we confess our sins, He is always ready to forgive us. It is much better to be honest and admit when we have done something wrong. And Mary Jane did forgive the boys for her broken and repaired elephant.
ML-07/16/2017