I was interested to read the other week about Tutankhamun’s death mask. It would seem that one of the most treasured artefacts in the world, which is 3,300 years old, was accidentally broken by the cleaners! Apparently, one night they were fixing the light in the showcase, and when they did that they held the mask in the wrong way and broke the beard off! In a panic the worker was quickly told to fix it and so used cheap superglue. Unfortunately the glue was an irreversible kind which should have only been used on metal or stone – not on Tutankhamun’s death mask!
The mask reportedly now shows a gap between the face and the beard. A museum worker was quoted to have said that once the glue had dried on the face of the mask, a colleague used a spatula to remove it, leaving scratches.
Oh dear! What a mistake to make – irreversible and now it will always show the marks of that mistake because the wrong decision was made and the wrong fixing agent was used.
It got me to thinking about how we all make mistakes – probably daily; and how often we look to the wrong fixing agents to sort out the mistake. But it doesn’t really do the job properly because perhaps it just covers over without dealing with it properly or it offers the wrong advice.
Someone who knew a lot about making mistakes and finding the wrong ways to sort it was King David. But then he realised his mistake and in the beautiful psalm 51, attributed to him, it says:
‘Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin…
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.’
David realised that the only person that could truly and properly fix his mistakes and restore his salvation was God.
When I was the Divisional Children’s Officer down south I remember a child writing a prayer that said,
Dear Lord,
Help me to remember that every day is like a fresh clean page, help me to fill it will lovely things for you.
This prayer is a great reminder that God can clean our sheet; He is the only one who can truly blot out the stains of our sins and give us a fresh start, a life which doesn’t show the marks of our mistakes. Let’s make sure we try, as best we can, to fill our clean page with lovely things for him but if we make a mistake, let’s make sure we go to the true solution, the true restorer of the clean page!
Captain Clare