AUGUST 16,  Isaiah  59:2

“Copying is cheating and stealing,” Mom scolded when she caught Emma copying a book report her brother had written the year before. “You will read that book yourself and do your own report. Start reading right now!” Emma knew she should be sorry for trying to copy, but she wasn’t. She didn’t want to read that long, boring book, but Mom made her spend the whole evening doing so.

“Ah-h-choo,” sneezed Emma as she settled down at her school desk the next morning. She felt lousy, but she didn’t want to stay home. She was still too angry with her mother. “Ah-ah-choo! Ah-choo!” Emma sneezed again-and again. “Ah-choo!”

As the morning passed, Emma continued to sneeze. Her nose was so stuffed up! Her throat was sore, too, and she coughed a lot. She noticed that several of the kids sitting near her frowned, and when recess finally came, even her best friends seemed to avoid her.

After recess, Miss Lee called Emma to her desk. “I think you need to go home, Emma,” Miss Lee said. “Your cold sounds really bad!” Emma reluctantly agreed, and Miss Lee sent her to the office with a note. Soon her mother arrived to pick her up.

When Emma was comfortably settled at home, she let out a long sigh. “It’s sure good to be here,” she said. “Everybody avoided me at school.” Mom smiled. “You can’t really blame them,” she replied. “Nobody wanted to catch your cold, so they stayed away.” After a short pause, Mom added, “Your cold reminds me of sin.”

Emma looked at her mother in surprise. “You mean because before Adam and Eve sinned, there wasn’t any sickness?” she asked. “So even a cold is because of sin?”

“Well, that, too, but in this particular case, your cold separated you from your friends, and sin separates us from fellowship with God,” explained Mom. “He always loves us, but when we refuse to do anything about our sin, it spoils our fellowship, or our friendship, with Him.” Emma knew it was true. I need to apologize to Mom, she thought, and I need to talk to God, too, and confess my anger.

Thought: Is there a sin separating you from fellowship with God?

Prayer: Father in heaven, thank You for the reminder to be serious about sin and not let my fellowship with You be harmed because of it. This is my humble cry in Jesus’ name, Amen.