The story is told of a little boy who built a sailboat. He built it to sail and had it all fixed up, tarred, and painted. One day, he took it to the lake and pushed it in hoping it would sail. Sure enough, a wisp of breeze filled the little sail and it billowed and went rippling along the waves. Suddenly, before the little boy knew it, the boat was out of his reach, even though he waded in fast and tried to grab it. As he watched it float away, he hoped maybe the breeze would shift and it would sail back to him. Instead, he watched it go farther and farther until it was gone. When he went home crying, his mother asked, "What's wrong, didn't it work?" He said, "It worked too well."
Sometime later, the little boy was downtown and walked past a secondhand store. There in the window he saw the boat. It was unmistakably his, so he went in and said to the owner, "That's my boat." He walked to the window, picked it up and started to leave with it. The owner of the shop said, "Wait a minute, sonny. That's my boat. I bought it from someone." The boy said, "No, it's my boat. I made it. See." And he showed him the little scratches and the marks where he hammered and filed. The man said, "I'm sorry, boy. If you want it, you have to buy it."
The poor little guy didn't have any money, but he worked hard and saved his pennies. Finally, one day he had enough money. He went in and bought the little boat. As he left the store holding the boat close to him, he was heard saying, "You're my boat. You're twice my boat. First, you're my boat because I made you, and second, you're my boat because I bought you!"
Redemption is a funny thing. Something that was once ours can only be ours again if we are willing to pay the price to redeem (buy it back) it. That’s what our Creator had to do with us. He made us. He fashioned us. He even created us in His image, but we wandered off somewhere along our journey in life. He had to come downtown, to earth, to get us back. His work on the cross was enough to pay for our redemption.
Join me this Sunday as we discover the depths of what it takes to redeem us from our lost condition.
John
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