Psalm 86:5 "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
I can still see the nun standing in front of the chalk board, the board was green and the chalk she used was yellow. She was giving our fourth grade class a brief theology lesson on God's forgiveness. She drew a large circle on the board, then turned the yellow chalk stick flat on the board and quickly colored in the circle. The lesson had begun.
She described the filled in circle as our souls when we were born, dark and black (or yellow), from original sin. After we were baptized as babies original sin was washed away, and she took an eraser and wiped away the chalk from the circle. She picked up the chalk and began to name sins that would be typical of fourth graders, and with each sin named, she would put a large yellow dot in the circle soul. I remember a sort of collective cringe of conviction from the class with the naming of each sin, and very soon the soul was dark once again.
We were taught that we needed God's forgiveness, and that His forgiveness was conditional and depended upon works of penance. We were given a large number of things to do to earn forgiveness. The list included going to confession, saying the rosary, special prayers to saints, wearing medals, novenas, mass on first Fridays, and much more. If enough of these works of penance were accomplished, perhaps God might be ready to forgive. The nun's theology was off, and sadly it set us poor fourth graders on a treadmill of doing works that we could never ever do enough of, to earn forgiveness.
When I came to salvation in Christ, the liberty of living under God's grace was made so very clear to me in His word. What wonderful freedom once I began to understand that God is ready and willing to forgive me. Jesus has already completed the work needed for the forgiveness of sins, I just need to receive His gracious gift of salvation. What weight is lifted knowing that God's willingness to forgive is apart from any works that I do, because I know I could never do enough.
Please don't be separated from the Lord. I don't care how dark and yellow your soul might be, in Jesus you can be forgiven. There is no need for you to have to prove your worthiness or win His favor. Through Jesus God is ready to forgive.
