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I finally realized I was as innocent as the sky.

When I was in college, I struggled with guilt. Various sins repeatedly caught me, crushing me with their weight. Dejected, I sometimes walked across campus and looked at the innocence of the clouds, the trees, and the sky.

The sky especially captured my attention, vacillating from cozy fog to bright blue celebration to a world-hugging blanket. As I stared up, I thought about the innocence of God’s creation.

God, I wish I were like Your creation. I wish I didn’t have a mind and body that craved sin. I wish I could daily shine Your glory clearly, innocently, and jubilantly.

Many years later, I am walking outside again, looking at the sky, the trees, and the beauty of God’s creation. I still struggle with many of the same sins I faced back then. Yet God has impressed a new truth on me—a truth that’s actually the oldest truth I know. But somehow, this truth always feels fresh and touches me to my marrow—the truth of His gospel.

My burden of guilt rolled into that tomb with Jesus. He bore it on the cross and paid for it with His lifeblood. When He took my sin, He gave me His righteousness in return. I am made right with Him—whole, complete, and perfect.

God’s still working on me, and I long for the day when I’ll enjoy a resurrected body that’s free from any urge to sin.

But my guilt is gone. All traces of God’s anger and displeasure at how I’ve disobeyed Him and mistreated His creation are gone—rolled into that tomb and dead with my Savior. And when He arose, I did too—new, clean, whole, and as innocent as the sky, the clouds, and the wind.

In Christ, we are all beautiful, clean, and as innocent as the sky. What are some ways you can let what Christ has done relieve your guilt?

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)