It was a very wet day and I was trudging home from school with that horrid report card tucked up the sleeve of my raincoat to keep it dry. I was watching the streams of water hurry along by the curb and disappear through the grating into the sewer below.
Suddenly an idea popped into my mind. If I floated my report card on the water, it would disappear down into the sewer too, and I’d be rid of that big red “F” forever! And with that I let go of the card. It dropped into the little river... and it was gone!
Now I was free... or was I? I didn’t feel like walking any faster.
When I got home, Mom asked, “Did you bring your report card?”
“No,” I answered.
“How come? Mike brought his,” she said.
But I was already heading for my bedroom. I was utterly miserable.
At the beginning of the school year I had lost my spelling book, and my teacher had told me that I would have to buy myself another one. My parents had given me the money and I had gone to the store and asked for a 3rd-grade spelling book. However, our house was in the township, and the store, although it was only a block away, was in the city. And the city’s 3rd-grade spelling book that I bought that day was very different from the one we used in my class.
Mom had told me to take it back, but I was just too shy to return it. Besides, there were no township bookstores anywhere near where we lived where I could buy the right spelling book. So I had spent two months without the right book, and now I had this big, red “F.”
Hot tears ran down my cheeks and spilled onto my pillow. The only way I would ever get a good mark in spelling, I thought, was if someone else took the test for me, someone who knew all the words perfectly.
The next day Miss Carter collected the report cards all but mine. “Where’s your report card, Anna?” she asked.
“It’s lost,” I mumbled.
“Well, you’d better find it!” she replied.
But I knew that wasn’t possible. That big red “F” is gone forever, I thought to myself, and I’m glad!
Do you know that every one of us has a big red “F” in God’s record book. We’ve all failed miserably, but God loved us so much He sent His own Son to take and pass the test for us. The Lord Jesus lived a perfect life. He never did one thing wrong or even thought any wrong thoughts. Everything He did was right and pleased God His Father. Then when He died on Calvary’s cross, God punished Him for our sins so we could get a perfect grade in God’s book. If we come to the Lord Jesus, admitting that we are sinners, and let Him wash away all our sins, we have God’s promise that we are just as acceptable to Him as the Lord Jesus is. Ephesians 1:6,7 tells us that God has “made us accepted in the beloved: in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
A few days later Miss Carter made out another report card for me. She let me know she was calling my mother to tell her I was bringing it home. So I still had that red “F.”
We can’t get away with our sins. God knows every one even the bad thoughts we have that no one else can see. But He loves us just the same and is eagerly waiting to forgive us, if we will only turn wholeheartedly to Him.
Have you come to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness?
ML-08/30/1992