Better than lemonade in the desert

I read this verse the other day in the One Year Bible:

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..." Acts 3:19 (NIV)

I just love that, don't you? I love the words "wiped out" which remind me that forgiveness involves a measure of forgetfulness. When we truly repent, God doesn't just overlook our faults, he erases them completely and gives us a fresh start (over and over and over again!) The Psalmist tells us "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12), and in Hebrews we read God's words, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more," (Hebrews 8:12) and a couple chapters later, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:17) I am so easily exasperated by forgetfulness in others, but it looks like I need to rethink that....turns out selective memory is a Godly quality!

But my favorite part of the verse is "times of refreshing." It brings to mind such things as swimming in a cool ocean on a hot day, a frosty cold drink on a parched throat, or reading a book in a shady hammock. I've always been big on refreshing. (In fact one summer I actually taught my type-A friend how to do nothing! Couldn't believe she didn't know. lol) But you can be sure that "refreshing...from the Lord" is even better than anything we can humanly imagine.