Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye – Colossians 3:13
A recent episode of the drama series Anna Pigeon revealed a childhood rule Anna and her sister, Molly, used to resolve conflicts. They would say, “Erase, erase,” instantly wiping the slate clean. But the sisters’ childhood formula didn’t remedy an explosive exchange. This time, the rift required far more than a magic phrase; it demanded a painful willingness to confront their fractured areas.
While Anna and Molly’s dispute was fictional entertainment, Jacob and Esau’s was very real, culminating in a twenty-year estrangement rooted in one brother’s covetousness and deception, and the other brother’s anger and retaliation. That is until grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation changed their hearts, beautifully demonstrated in Genesis 33. “And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came…And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother…. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept” (verses 1, 3, 4).
When we believe that grace opens the heart and forgiveness offers a start, and that repentance is the invitation to work toward reconciliation, then we can all become erasers. Indeed, the world needs many more.