The car I drive now wasn’t very old when I hit an animal that darted out in front of me on the highway. The impact cracked the plastic bumper on the front of the car. The damage was so slight that my wife and I decided not to go to the expense of fixing it. So I drove it as it was.

Sometimes I would forget about the imperfection. At other times it would bother me. But on I drove, for about 15 years. That’s when I hit another critter that suddenly ran out in front of me. This time my car wasn’t so fortunate, because the animal I hit was a full-grown deer. Amazingly, the deer walked away from the accident, but the damage to the car was so significant that it could not be ignored. Off to the repair shop it went.

In just a few days the front of the old car was looking brand new. Even the bumper that was damaged years ago had been repaired.

I guess the moral of this story (You knew there was going to be one, right?) is that sometimes we let old sins linger for years before we give them over to Jesus. We don’t have to go through life spiritually banged up. We can allow him to fix us up just like new. But we have to choose to do so.

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”—1 John 1:8-9.