For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12)
I have a Belgium-made Browning Pigeon Grade over-and-under shotgun that is more than fifty years old. The walnut stock has been worn smooth from years in the field, and the receiver still carries beautiful silver engravings of quail and pheasant.
It closes with the same firm, confident sound it must have made the day it left the factory. Time has aged it, but it has not weakened it.
One day, a golf buddy looked at it, smiled, and said something that stayed with me:
“Bird hunting is better than golf. You get two shots at every bird. I wish golf was a double-barrel sport.”
Anyone who plays golf understands that thought immediately.
If golf allowed two swings every time, the game would feel a lot kinder. A second drive. A second putt. A second chance at the shot you wish you could take back.
But life usually feels more like golf than bird hunting.
The world keeps score on the first shot. Reputations get fixed. Mistakes get remembered. People can be labeled by a single moment, a single failure, a single miss.
But the life of faith tells a different story.
God does not deal with us the way the world does. As Psalm 103 reminds us, He removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. In other words, He does not simply forgive the miss — He separates us from it altogether.
Where the world loves permanent reputations, Christ offers permanent redemption.
In golf, we joke about mulligans. In bird hunting, we talk about the second barrel. But in the life of Christ, grace runs deeper than either one.
Because with Him, the miss is never the end of the story.
There is always another chance to rise, to aim again, and to walk forward redeemed.
And the most important shot you will ever take in life is not the first one you missed.
It is the one you take after grace.
Prayer: Lord, thank You that the story is never over after a miss.