My family enjoyed watching the TV series, “Heroes” for the past three seasons. We sometimes ask ourselves, “if you have some kind of superpower, what do you want it to be?” Interestingly, most of us wanted to be like Hiro (pronounced like Hero) Nakamura. He is that Japanese guy who can bend time and space. Of course, my kids would ask me why I want to be like Hiro. As I thought about it, I wondered, “wouldn’t we all wish we can travel in time so that we could fix some of the problems we caused or mistakes we made in the past?” I have to admit having "time traveling" power would be a good thing to have, because I would love to have some “rewinding,” if given the chance.
For example, I wish I can travel back in 1999, to the day I told my dad that he was insensitive and did not love my mom. While I cannot go through the details of why I said that, yet, I know that it was a very mean thing to say. The guilt haunted me since then and has caused me to lose sleep. My dad was 79 years old at that time and he was hard of hearing. He was a tough man but one who would not lift a finger to hurt someone. He was soft spoken yet funny. He was full of wisdom and truly cares for the disadvantage. He was actually a very good father to us six children and a loving husband to my mom. But when I said those mean words, I saw on his face deep sadness. Obviously, I hurt him deeply. Did he retaliate and get upset of me? No. He was just quiet and looked sad. Why did I ever say those hurting words when in reality he was such a good man? In fact, the last words he told me when I took them the Los Angeles airport on their way home to the Philippines was, “Bermie, I want you to take care of your mom. Love her as she is a good mother.” He was thinking of my mom's welfare even after he would be gone.
My dad died in the Philippines in 2004 and I never had the chance to talk to him and tell him how sorry I was and that I love him so dearly. How I wish I can travel back to that time in 1999 and put a cork in my mouth!
I wish I could go back to the times my closest friends needed me the most and I wasn't there for them. Maybe then they would understand how much they really mean to me. I wish I could go back to those times that I felt I was too important and too much “in demand” to spend significant time with my kids when they were small. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel like I missed so much of their growing up years.
Is there anyone out there who can show us how to travel in time? Perhaps we need someone to invent a time machine? I think we could all use one. We all have some cleaning up that we could do. Unfortunately, time machines don’t exist. Time travel is fiction. And what we really need is forgiveness.
Our Lord Jesus declares that once we come before Him and confess our sins, He wipes us totally clean. He actually moves our sin and brokenness far from His heart, and looks on us as though we had never sinned. It is almost like; Jesus travels into our past and forgives. Why not? After all He is the God of the past, present and future.
Now that is a totally different concept from our dream of “time traveling.” We don’t have to time travel to fix things on our own. God’s forgiveness leads to transformation of our hearts and lives by giving us a sense of freedom that goes beyond comparison. While “rewinding life” and “fixing” things” may do us good, we need forgiveness more! We need freedom, not regret!
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. —1 John 1:9
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