Joseph Priestley had a lot of jobs. He was a pastor, teacher, politician, philosopher, and chemist. I’m fairly certain you have never heard of him; however, almost every day you use something he invented.
In 1770 Joseph Priestley invented a vegetable gum, called it “rubber,” and used it to remove pencil marks. That’s right, almost 250 years ago, the eraser was invented. Tomorrow is National Rubber Eraser Day, a holiday that celebrates the invention that allows you to correct your math homework.
Every single day we get to remember that Jesus is our eraser, who wiped our sins away. Two thousand years ago Jesus died for us and came back to life. By doing that he took the punishment we should have gotten. Now we know that “as far as the east is from the west—that is how far he has removed our rebellious acts from himself” (Psalm 103:12). He erased our punishment and the record of every single one of our sins.
That’s not it, though. What’s cool is that we also get the prize we didn’t earn. And this one involves NOT erasing anything. “Everyone who wins the victory this way will wear white clothes. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life. I will acknowledge them in the presence of my Father and his angels” (Revelation 3:5).
Your sins have been erased, but your name never will be. I love how our God works!
Dear God, thank you that because Jesus erased my sins, you won’t erase my name from the list of people in your family, from the book that gives me my ticket into heaven. Amen.
