The children in a prominent family decided to give their father a book of the family’s history for a birthday present. They commissioned a professional biographer to do the work, carefully warning him about the family’s “black sheep” problem: Uncle George had been convicted of murder and was executed in the electric chair at the state penitentiary. The biographer assured the children that he could smooth over the situation to their satisfaction. Sure enough, when the book came out, it said that “Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties and his death came as a real shock.”

There is no need to whitewash our family history and pretend that we have it all together. The Bible says that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23). We all are sinners in need of a savior. And we thank God that he sent us a Savior—His one and only Son, Jesus!