RESTORE!

The other day it happened. Not exactly a crash, but close. I had downloaded some updated drivers for some software, naïvely following those pop-ups that periodically exhibit themselves on your monitor: A new version of the driver for XYZ is available. Download NOW!

And I did.

Then I had to restart the computer for all of those fancy updates to take effect. That’s when it happened. Uh-oh!

I couldn’t get to my desktop. My computer actually signed on to the “Guest Account,” obstinately refusing to accept my log-in as the legitimate version of Abe Kuruvilla. Try as I might—and try hard, I did—this identity crisis couldn’t be resolved. Yup, I figured, all those downloads and updates. Something’s gunked up the works. I wondered if WD-40 would work … or maybe even duct tape. (Ancient Texan maxim: If it moves but shouldn’t, use duct tape; if it isn’t moving but should, use WD-40.)

It was at this juncture of consternation and confusion that I remembered our man Bill Gates’ invention of that outstanding maneuver called “System Restore.” This handy system tool actually rolls back everything related to the running of the system (without touching one’s documents and other such files) to a date when things were actually working. It’s a magic wand! Amazing stuff. Within ten minutes, everything was back shipshape. A time machine, indeed!

Now that, folks, is one useful tool. A more global version of the “Undo” button on your word processing program. You know, they need to have things like that for life! One click and you are back where you were before you began messing things up with your thoughts, and words, and deeds. System Restore!

Harry Potter could do that (not exactly, but more about that here). Thankfully, no one in the real world can fiddle with time. Think of the chaos!

But we have something better. Selective Restore! The bad things “wiped out”—not that the actual bad stuff I do (read: “sin”) gets erased, but their eternal consequences are.

Though your sins are as scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they will be like wool.
Isaiah 1:18

Gone. Once for all.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Robert Lowry, 1876

Penalty suffered. Price paid. Debt canceled.

[Jesus Christ] Himself bore our sins
in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin …;
for by His wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24

The Great Exchange. One taking the place of the other. God for me. Substitution.

He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

We’ve entered the period in the church calendar called Lent, the seven weeks (or so) leading up to Easter—the celebration of the event of redemption: the Resurrection. And traditionally the church over the centuries has used this period to reflect on why this redemption was necessary in the first place—my sin … and yours.

This Lent don’t forget to give thanks for redemption. Redemption that will finally be consummated when we see Christ face to face.

We know that when He appears,
we will be like Him ….
1 John 3:2

Then it will indeed be … System Restored.