So near, because it is right behind you, and yet so far, because . . .
It is the difference between walking this way, and turning and walking that way, in the opposite direction.
In thus turning . . . is repentance, and in nothing else.
Lo, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but thou hast held back my life from the pit of destruction, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
-- Isaiah 38:17
As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
-- Psalm 103:12
