Marbles

 

When I was a kid, the craze was playing marbles.  The boys in Old Post Elementary school had drawstring bags full of marbles.  Those kids not so rich (like me) had their marbles in old socks.  My dad wouldn’t let me play marbles at school because he said that the game was gambling.  I suppose he was right.  Here’s how it went: someone drew a circle in the dirt and each of the two players would put the same number of their marbles into the center.  Then each boy would take turns using his shooter marble to hit the marbles out of the circle.  When he did, the marble went into his bag.  The game was over when the last marble was hit out.  No real winner, someone’s bag just got fatter.  Bad players would go home with no marbles, hence the expression, “They lost all of their marbles”.  During a game while you were aiming down at the marbles to shoot, sometimes your shooter would accidentally roll out of your hand.  If you yelled “slipsies” before the other player did, you could have a do-over.  Hey, in life, have you ever wanted to have a do-over?  Sometimes your slipsie might have been a dumb mistake.  But sometimes your slissie might have been a divorce, a DUI, a broken friendship, an affair.  You see, some slipsies are not just slipsies, they are life-changing sins.  John said in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  You can’t have a do-over for sins, but you can be forgiven of your sins.  Oh, you will live with the scars of those sins, but you can have a clean heart before God.  Thanks to Jesus, your sins can be made as white as snow!