There's a t-shirt that's become popular among English teachers and other grammarians recently. Perhaps you've seen it. It has no pictures, just three lines of text:
Let's eat Grandma.
Let's eat, Grandma.
Punctuation saves lives!
I have to admit, the first time I saw it, I thought it was hilarious. That one little comma changed grandma from a dinner entree to a dinner guest.
On the t-shirt it's a joke, but doesn't God continually change the script that is our lives? Doesn't He edit the punctuation? For example, the world tells us there is no hope. Period! Then God comes along and changes that period to a comma, and adds, "but these three remain, faith, hope and love." Likewise, the world may tell you "You are worthless." Period! Yet God changes that period to a comma and adds, "but I gave everything for you upon that cross. You are worth everything to me."
God's in the habit of changing the punctuation of our lives. Where we see an end, He sees but a pause, a pause in which He enters our world and corrects all the "typos" our past has written into our lives.
In order to help us understand His incomprehensible love and absolute holiness, God is portrayed in many ways throughout Scripture - as a compassionate father welcoming his wayward children back home, as a righteous judge meting out perfect justice, as a mother who could never forget her nursing child, and even as a hen wanting to take her chicks protectively under her wings, but I would like to suggest yet one more image: God as an editor correcting and perfecting the text of our lives so that they may tell of His love for us and tell of His grace at work in us. And, His corrections really do save lives.
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