Forgive me for I have sinned.  A lot.  Frequently.  Well specifically, I almost always forget to use the cloth grocery bags at the store.  I end up getting paper bags.  I feel bad, but I recycle.  I still feel bad.  I sin, again.  Repeat.  Please, forgive me. I am a paper bag sinner.

Well the other night, I finally thought my “paper bag” sin would produce a positive outcome.  For once.  Ever.  My 12-year-old son needed one for a school project.  He was unsure of any details regarding the project, but he needed one.  Right away.

Searching the house, wouldn’t you know it? No paper bags to be found.  I had recycled them all.  Every last one.

We had one more option, the storage room.  A land of the lost.  Lost clothing.  Lost appliances.  Lost papers.  Lost dreams.  A room of great sadness.

Entering, I spotted one final bag.  Full of long forgotten and now irrelevant home office papers (a hoarder sin of mine?), I emptied the paper bag and handed it to my son.

“Paper bag” redemption.

Getting ready to leave the house this morning, another son, this time my 9-year-old son, approached me.  “Do we have a paper bag?  I need one for school, today.” Of course, wouldn’t have wanted to ask that last night.  Of course, no idea why he needs it.  Only one option remained, head to my scene of frequent sin to get one more paper bag.  Hurry into the car, it’s off to the grocery store.

Hurry in.  Buy a newspaper.  Place it in a paper sack (paper in paper, a tree somewhere cries, a tree somewhere dies). Hurry back into the car.  Drive, drive.  Goodbye, I love you, have a great day at school.

Hurrying back to the car, I still had a small chance of being on-time for work.  Glancing into the car, what did I see resting on the backseat?  Of course, the bag.  The paper bag that a few minutes before was so important.   So important it was absentmindedly left in the car.

Forgive us our paper bag trespasses, as we forgive those who paper bag trespass against us.

The paper bag of our sins.