Story of the Black Marks
Wording of this Handout:
Once there was a beautiful girl. One cold, winter's day she got dressed up and went to visit her grandfather, but on the way she brushed against a tree and shook some drops of water on to her face.
Without thinking, she wiped her face with her gloved hand, but the dye in her woolly gloves dissolved and she made black marks all over her face.
When she got to her grandfather, he saw the black marks on her face, and he smiled.
"I know something about you that you don't" said grandfather.
"What?" asked the little girl.
"Go look in a mirror and you'll see for yourself" said grandfather.
When the girl looked in the mirror, she saw for herself what had happened to her face.
"All that time" she said, "I had black marks on my face and I didn't even know!"
This is a bit like how it is between us and God. God looks at us and sees that we have the black marks of sin in our hearts, but how can we know too? One way is for us to look in the mirror of the Bible then we can see ourselves as we really are.