I don't know about you, but my home is full of erasers of all shapes and sizes. Ice cream cones, cell phones, hot dogs, hearts. They're those itty, bitty collectibles you never knew you needed.
The kids come home from birthday parties, class, and the book fair with them. I discover them later, lying in inconspicuous places in our house, almost as often as I find long lost hair ties.
Two years ago, when my son started kindergarten and joined his older sister in the homework game, I quickly discovered something I hadnʼt quite noticed before. The two of them were constantly looking for pencils. I would assure them there were plenty in the pencil cup in the kitchen, to which they would always reply, “Those donʼt have any erasers on them, Mom!”
Oh.
As I started to help search for a pencil in the house with an eraser that had enough rubber to work, I often came up empty handed. I had plenty of pencils, but the kids were right, the erasers were all missing.
I walked over to the table where the kids were and reviewed their homework. I looked closely at both of their sets of papers. I could see fresh pencil marks over areas of other pencil marks that had been fervently erased. Either an incorrect answer, or a misspelled word, or even a misshapen letter that had been realized and corrected.
My thoughts were flooded with understanding.
Kids make a lot of mistakes. Theyʼre in the process of learning.
Erasers help them correct their mistakes and move on to do it better next time, leaving behind very little evidence that a mistake had been made. All so they can continue moving forward. So they can learn. So they can grow.
This, after all, is what God does.
“I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” -Isaiah 43:25
Now every single time one of those adorable erasers comes home, I hang onto them. I know we will use them. We have a long journey ahead of us and Iʼm going to be sure my kids understand mistakes are absolutely okay. We have One who will never keep a record of the mistakes we make in life.
And we have small decorative pieces of rubber to do the same for homework.
Photo credit: Tony Amaker
Originally Published 10/13/2015
