With the promise of many sunny 60 degree days ahead I decided it was time to wash the salt and crude off my car. I pulled onto the track that would drag my car through a myriad of sprays and brushes. Opening my window to pay the man I held out my arm with the money and he promptly hit me full in the face with a blast from his handheld sprayer. Ouch – that stung! So much for the friendly welcoming service promised on the sign out front. I found my glasses on the passenger seat. At least I was as clean as I wanted my car. What amazed me is he still took my money. At least I could have gotten a “freebie.” However I think there is a limit to life’s freebies and I already got the one I wanted and needed. I got John 3:16 because I believe.
Now that I have said that I do have to explain that just because it was free to me it was certainly not free to God and to the universe. They watched the horrible ordeal as it moved from Gethsemane to the courts and finally to Golgotha. At some point most of them stopped watching. Who could watch such a scene? I had a tough enough time watching Mel Gibson’s movie and I knew it was pretend. What must it have been like when it was real? No, it wasn’t free.
Yet for me it is free. I have never been asked to sacrifice anything that was not in my best interest to shed. God is like that. If it’s good for us He wants us to keep it. This is definitely good for us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 18, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org