It is said that when each of us is created there is a string that connects us directly to G!d.
When we sin – whether by commission or error, through actions intentional or unintentional – the string breaks.
But when we do teshuvah, the angel Gabriel comes down and makes a knot in the string – bringing us a little closer to G!d.
You know what happens when this happens over and over again. The string keeps getting a little bit shorter and with each further knot G!d keeps drawing us closer and closer.

(Folk tale from Libya, can be found in One Minute Wisdom, by Anthony De Mello,
Pg 116. This telling edited by Mark Novak & Renée Brachfeld.