The Pacific Garbage Patch and the Sea of Forgetfulness

Some reassuring words from Psalm 103, beginning in verse 10:
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.   We can be grateful because God, in His Son, Jesus, has provided us an avenue through which we can experience freedom through forgiveness.   Christ's blood is a powerful cleansing agent that makes us right with God and can help us be free from the guilt and shame that can keep us from moving forward in our spiritual life.   While spiritual debris can clutter our souls, God's spiritual detergent can cleanse us and release us to walk in freedom.

Micah 7:18 and 19 show us that we serve a forgiving God, who not only forgives our sins, but He forgets them once they are confessed:
18 Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.   USA Today reports that recently, in Oregon a large dock washed ashore.  How large?  7 feet high and 19 feet wide - it is thought to be debris from the tsunami that struck Japan in March of last year, bringing to mind a question - how much is out there?   Japanese officials estimate some 5 million tons of debris washed into the Pacific Ocean, and some 70% of it sank - and there are some wild estimates out there about the remaining 30%, what it could look like, and how it will affect coastal regions of the U.S.  There have been some signs:  According to the Los Angeles Times:A ghost ship arrived in the Gulf of Alaska this spring. A rusting Harley Davidson from Miyagi prefecture was discovered on a remote beach in British Columbia.

Also, a soccer ball found on an Alaskan island and marked with a personal message was returned to its delighted teenage owner in a tsunami-devastated town.  Now, the oceanic experts expect much of the floating debris to follow the currents to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of millions of tons of small bits of plastic floating in the northern Pacific.
The area is located about 1000 miles north of Hawaii, stretches for hundreds of miles, and is about the size of the state of Texas.   And, while this combination of plastic and other materials has clumped together, some pieces of debris will break loose and wash ashore.  Yes, this Patch is a huge problem, and has a potentially devastating effect on marine life.    And, it presents a compelling image about the nature of spiritual debris in our lives.   For one thing, Micah 7 says that God has buried our sins in a sea of forgetfulness, and as a preacher has said, He has put a "No Fishing" sign there.     We do tend to go back in the recesses of our memory and bring to the surface what God has hidden - we allow the guilt of past sins to affect us, sometimes years after the occurrence.   And, while God offers healing and forgiveness, and the ability to forget - we want to hold on indefinitely and allow that debris to consume us in the present and clutter up our spiritual lives.  We fish around our own spiritual debris patch, and the enemy helps some of that stuff to break loose - the smaller pieces that He brings to our minds, instances of sins that have long been forgiven, and it's important that we take the necessary steps to appropriate the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, God's Word and His Spirit so that we might enjoy the freedom we have in Him.   The debris is there - God's forgotten it, we sometimes hold on to it, and the enemy uses it to snare us - but we have powerful cleansing agents in Him.