Daily Devotional for January 8, 2020
Sin Worms
“Brrrr!” Malia’s teeth chattered as she closed the kitchen door and kicked off her boots. “It’s freezing out there, Mom! I need warmer mittens!”
“There are lots of mittens in the hall closet,” Mom replied. She opened the closet door, rummaged around, and pulled out knitted hats, mittens, and scarves. “Oh no!” she groaned when she saw holes in some of them.
“I don’t remember holes in any of our mittens or scarves last year!” Malia said. “What happened to them?”
“These are made of wool, and moths got into them,” Mom explained.
“Moths?” asked Malia. “Those things that kinda look like butterflies?”
“Yes, but the kind that get into clothing are very small, and it’s not at the butterfly stage that they eat the fibers. It’s earlier—when they look like little caterpillars or small worms. Each one can eat enough to permanently damage clothes.”
“Worms?” Malia made a face. “Gross! Who would have thought such little things could ruin our good mittens?” Then she grinned. “It’s just like my lesson at church last week. I’ll have to tell my teacher.”
Mom looked surprised. “What was that lesson about?” she asked.
“About how little things can do a lot of harm,” replied Malia. “Like…sometimes we’re tempted to think telling a little lie or cheating just a little isn’t so bad.”
“And what did you learn about that?” asked Mom.
“Well, we learned that in God’s sight, sin doesn’t come in sizes. All sin is just that—it’s sin. It’s all evil.”
“That’s right,” said Mom. She picked up a moth-eaten mitten. “If the idea of worms eating your mittens sounds gross to you and me, think of how gross sin is to God. He hates it—all of it—and we should hate it too. That’s why we need to go to Jesus for forgiveness—even for so-called little sins—and trust Him to help us do what’s good instead.”
Malia nodded. “That’s what my teacher said—that we need Jesus to help us say no when we’re tempted to do something wrong, no matter how small it seems. But I think I understand even better now after seeing what those icky worms did to my mittens!” -Sherry L. Kuyt
How about you?
Do you think so-called little sins aren’t very serious—that they don’t really hurt anything? Think again. Every sin hurts us and others, no matter how small it seems. God hates sin so much He sent His Son to die on the cross so we could be freed from it. He doesn’t take sin lightly, and neither should we. Confess every sin to Jesus. He will forgive you and help you do what’s right.
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