One thing we humans have in common is that we all make mistakes. I would be very leery of anyone who said that they never made a mistake. Webster defines mistake in part, “to understand or perceive wrongly; a blunder; error; misunderstanding.”
Years ago, a friend of ours, a preacher, stated he never made a grammatical mistake during a sermon. My wife took notes throughout his next sermon; she is much better in English grammar than I am. You guessed it—our friend made several blunders. We pointed out his mistakes, and we all had a jolly good-natured laugh about this. He never was boastful anymore concerning his grammatical excellence. A lesson learned!
Most normal people have learned to cope and to correct mistakes the best they can. That is why many of us apologize and make things right. Sadly, and often times, a blunder can be deadly or very costly. Nearly all of us recognize a mistake, an error or a misunderstanding can cause a terrible accident or the like. We also understand, and rightly so, that such mistakes are all part of the human factor, a part of life.
In Luke 2:41-52, there is an account of Mary and Joseph misplacing Jesus. “But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance” (Luke 2:44 KJV). Mary and Joseph made a mistake. They made a blunder; they perceived wrongly. We know that this mistake was not done on purpose and correction of the error was made.
As we make blunders and mistakes, let us make corrections the best we can. As humans, we can do no more. In the correction of our mistakes, truth should guide us to set things right. Truth and honesty are always the best course to resolve all blunders and mistakes. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NKJV).
