When we think about God’s character we often think of His holiness, righteousness, justice, power, forgiveness, purity and grace. One aspect of God’s character which can at times be overlooked, and can bring us a great deal of comfort, is His forgetfulness. Now you might think, “How can a God who knows all things be forgetful?” The answer is that in His love for us He simply chooses to forget. In the 31st chapter of the book of Jeremiah, God says, “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jer. 31:33-34. The apostle Paul, writing of our relationship with Christ in the new covenant, echoes the same ideas in the book of Hebrews: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Heb 8:12.
So the next time we remember one of our magnificent blunders of action, speech, or thought, we can look up and take comfort in our God. In His great and never ending love for us, He has chosen to forget those moments in our lives and has washed us in the blood of His Son to bring us near to Him.