It's a beautiful day at Durphee Lake. In the shiny screen reflection of Daniel's notebook computer screen I see the sky and trees. I spent part of this morning hauling waterweed up from the beach where it washed up. Good exercise!
The lake is quite calm and the water is nice and clear. Probably a bit more than a half mile long and wide, it's not a lake for powerboats. There is a nice sand bottom and the weeds aren't rooted here. They just blew over yesterday when we had some high wind. They'll be gone soon.
The Dahlins tell of a time, many years ago, when they thought the lake was done for. There were cranberries being raised on farms at both ends of the lake. One of the farms used to pump water from the lake to flood the bogs to protect them from frost. The excess water, full of fertilizers, would drain back. Toni's dad says that the whole lake was covered with "solid scum" in the summer of 1965, a couple of years after they bought the cabin.
You might imagine that lake cabin owners, including my in laws, were quite unhappy. Fortunately, the cranberry farm family saw what it was doing to the lake and stopped the pumping. Over a period of years, the lake healed. Now, 40 years later, hard feelings between farmer and cabin owners are gone.
The health of this lake today is a wonderful reminder of the power of repentance. It takes recognizing error and living a new way. Because of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who takes away our sin, everything can be clean. Even scummy human relationships can begin to heal.
It's good when people realize what they are doing and repent. Repentance means admiting the wrong and changing one's way of life. It's repentance that John the Baptist calls for in Matthew 3. As we read Matthew this month, let's consider what God wants to heal in our lives, our relationships, and in the world God loves so much.
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