One feature of Microsoft Windows is its "system restore" feature. How does it work? Suppose you suffer a system crash on your computer this Thursday. You're not a computer expert, and you don't know how to recover the last two weeks of financial information you entered Wednesday, your daughter's history report she started writing Monday, or your favorite game. All you have to do is select "system restore" and specify the date to which you want your machine reset. Voila! Problem solved. All the things you somehow messed up are put back in their configuration as of that earlier day.

Wouldn't you like to market that feature for human lives? Do you think you could supply it fast enough to keep up with the demand? Bob would "system restore" to the day before he began the affair. Sue would go back to the day before she tampered with payroll data. Ivan would choose the day before the big fight that caused his son to run away from home.

Maybe you can remember the day when things crashed for you—and you'd give anything you own to restore things to the way they were.

God won't erase all the consequences of our actions, but he promises things far better: to forgive us, to work for the highest good even through what is bad, and one day to make all things new.

What Windows calls "system restore" God calls redemption.