It’s been a doozy of a week this week in the University Lutheran church building. Obviously, being under a hurricane warning was a part of that. Also, the HVAC unit for the resident apartment went out and will have to be replaced. Lastly, the network external hard drive that we keep a lot of files in for church….imploded or something. Whatever it was, the nice people who tried to get the data off the drive said it was “DOA”.
Unfortunately, I had used that drive as its own backup, and that effectively means that the files from 2018 to 2023 are largely gone. No backup. Just gone. The data is still “sort of” there in that it is on the hard drive. There are people out there who promise that they could restore it, but for a pretty hefty fee. The reality is that the data isn’t worth the price.
As I reflected on losing all of those Bible studies, copies of old sermons, bulletins, and other records, I tried to find something positive. What I found was the realization that this is not unlike our sins before God. Because of Christ, they have been made inaccessible. Christ has put them in His Body, the hard drive that refuses to give up its files. On the Cross, that Body was declared “DOA”. The files are irretrievable. There has been no copy made. They are just gone.
It still hurts a little right now to search for a file and to remember that those files no longer exist, but when I am before the righteous Judge of this world and He says, “there’s nothing here on the hard drive about your sins,” I will rejoice. And so will you.