In a vision, I saw a large Christmas tree with many toys under its branches. At first they looked beautiful under the lights of the tree, but closer inspection revealed that each of these gifts had been broken. As I looked at these discarded toys, I heard the sound of soft crying coming from the corner and there, with her back turned away from the tree, was a little girl. Her whole body heaved up and down as she tried to stop sobbing. As she looked over her shoulder at me with her red, watering eyes, flushed face, and a pouting lower lip sticking out, she exclaimed “They’re broken. They’re all broken, and they can’t be fixed!” With that she burst back into tears.

Suddenly the room grew brighter, and I saw what appeared to be the girl’s father walk up to the tree. He reached down and one by one picked up each of the discarded gifts. As the toys were picked up, they were instantly repaired and made to look new. I noticed that not only had the toys been made new, but some of the toys even became larger or a different color than they had been before. Then the father knelt down next to the little girl, who was still crying, wrapped his arms around her, and gave her a big hug. Brushing her hair back from her eyes with his hand, he wiped away her tears, took her hand, and led her back over to the tree saying softly to her, “See, everything’s new. Nothing is broken anymore.”

With that the vision faded, but as it faded I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “My people know that I am the God who can do all things, but many still need to learn that I am the God who can undo all things.”

God Can Do All Things
One of the favorite Bible verses for many is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We know that God is all-powerful; that nothing is too difficult for Him. We rejoice that “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Yes, we are confident. God can do all things!

The problem we have isn’t knowing what God can do, it is seeing what we have done. We look at our lives and see the broken plans and shattered dreams. We’ve sinned. We’ve missed God’s plan or run from His will. The enemy has gained such powerful victories in our lives and stolen so much. We have been hypocrites … doubters … prodigals … Jonahs. Like Peter we have done the very thing we swore we wouldn’t, and now the actions of our lives deny the truths of God we have proclaimed. As we survey our lives, seeing what they could have been compared to what they are, our lives look hopelessly damaged beyond repair, and our hearts echo the words of the little girl in the vision: “It’s broken and it can’t be fixed.”

But the good news is that the depth of our falls and failings don’t intimidate God in the least. God undid Jonah’s rebellious runaway. He undid David’s adultery with Bathsheba. God undid Peter’s fall when he denied the Lord with cursing. And He undid Paul’s blasphemous vendetta against the early Church. All of these (and many others down through the ages) had points in their lives when things looked hopelessly disappointing, as if they were done and no longer usable to advance God’s kingdom. How could they possibly undo all the wrong things they did, said, or failed to do? They couldn’t! But God could … and He did!

God Blots Out Our Sin
God can undo the brokenness and disappointment of our lives, and the first way He does this is to take away our sins. In Psalm 51:9 the writer cries out to the Lord “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” Our hearts cry out with his, “If only it could be so. If my sins could be dissolved and my slate wiped clean!” Not only could it be so; it is so, because that is the very character of our God who declared of Himself “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). When we have fallen in sin and come to God in true repentance, He doesn’t just excuse our sin or cover over it. God blots out our sin — forgiving and not remembering.

Isaiah 44:22 gives us this great and precious promise from the heart of God, “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist.” Just as the winds disseminate a cloud and it is no more, or the rising sun evaporates the morning dew, our great God doesn’t just forgive our sins, He completely eradicates them — they cease to exist. The Message Bible puts it this way: “I’ve wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There’s nothing left of your sins.” Others in your family or at your church may continue to see you in the light of your failing as if that fall has now become a permanent part of your true identity, but the good news is that God not only forgives your sins, He wipes your slate clean — those things will never even be remembered.

Justified By God
But God doesn’t just change our condition — from sinful to sin free; He also changes our posture before Him — from guilty to innocent. Not only are we forgiven for sinning and reconciled back into relationship with God, we now stand before Him justified. This word evokes the language of the court of law. To be justified in the biblical sense means that since Christ has suffered the punishment for sin in our place we can receive the verdict of “not guilty.” We go from having sin and being guilty to having no sin and being justly declared not guilty. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ shed His blood for our justification. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him”(Romans 5:9). Being justified is not the same as merely being pardoned (which simply means you’re a forgiven sinner). It is far better to be justified, for now it is “just as if we had never committed the sin.”

Being justified is like someone standing in the seat of the accused, only moments from being convicted and sentenced, but Jesus volunteered to be found guilty in their place so the judge acquits them. Jesus is declared guilty and they have been proclaimed innocent.

This is what Jesus did on the Cross. He took your sin upon Himself so that God saw your sin on Him, and because of this, He can justly proclaim you not guilty. By the blood of His Son, God has justified us — sin removed and nothing held against us. What a wonderful thing; not one sin held against us, and God Himself declares us innocent! No wonder the gospel is called good news!

All Things Working For Good
God undoes the mess we have made of our lives first by blotting out our sin and then fully acquitting us so we stand justifiably innocent before Him. But what of all the times we’ve missed His plans. Weeks … months … years wasted. Opportunities and situations that can never be recreated have passed away like last year’s flower blossoms.

The great news is that our God is not looking for hearts that deserve a second chance, only for hearts that truly desire a second chance. Our God is a God of grace, a God of the second chance, the third chance, the fourth chance, etc. He gives opportunities again where we have squandered them. He did this for Jonah … for Peter … for Paul, and He will do it for you today because it is part of who He is.

Our God is the great Potter. He looks at us, His chosen clay vessels, and says, “Oh, there’s a little blemish. Let’s make that over again.” He loves to recreate lives. It gives Him great pleasure. When we rebel … He reconciles. When we cannot get beyond rehashing our imperfect lives … He brings His fire and refines them. When we are stuck in the land of regrets, seeing all the “could’ves” and “should’ves” … He restores. That is the character of our God.

Not only will God willingly give us a second chance, He will cause our losses to be as gains in our lives. Every failure, every defect, everything we count as a loss, our sovereign Lord will cause to work for our good. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The Bible even promises that whenever the enemy robs from us God will redeem it for us. God will return multiplied to us what the enemy has stolen. Listen to this promise of multiplied restoration God declares in Zechariah 9:12, “Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; this very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.” Every time the enemy steals from you, he is causing God to give back to you even more than he steals. No wonder those who trust in the Lord as their stronghold can be “prisoners of hope!”

God created you with a destiny, and He treasures in His heart a hope-filled future yet waiting to be fulfilled. “I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Even if you have failed the Lord or fallen in sin, God still has plans for you. The best is yet to come.

Let God Undo Your Life
If you have stumbled and fallen, if the enemy of your soul has been telling you you’re worthless and discarded, remember the Lord’s not finished with you yet. Jesus will take those parts of your life that look seemingly worthless, and make them something new and treasured. He will blot out your sin and cause you to be able to stand justified before Him. He will brush the dust of shame off of you and give you a brand-new start. He will cause the evils that have befallen you to work in your life for your good. And He will restore to you more than the enemy has stolen.

Truly, our God can do all things … including completely undoing our hopeless past, and restoring to us a hope-filled future. Let us turn to God and trust in Him to undo the wrongs we have committed and the victories the enemy has won in our lives. If we will give Him all the brokenness of our lives, He will make them something new. Let our all-powerful God take your life from “It can’t be fixed” to “The best is yet to come.”