CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY YOU

Recently I blogged here about the heartwrenching day when my 4-year old collided with a YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT pottery store policy. 

But this morning as I thought back to that moment, I had a different take-away.

What if I hadn't been there?  What if I hadn't walked over to the counter with my wallet to make it right?  My little girl didn't have $16.  She couldn't exactly pony up the cash for that fragmented figurine.  It wasn't like she had anything to offer that could compensate for what she had broken.  Or what if I hadn't been willing to pay for what she broke?

It's kind of like this: I broke something, too.  And the price tag was somewhere in the billions to replace.  If I couldn't manage to come up with the payment to settle the score, it would mean an eternity apart from God.

But I couldn't pay it.  I had broken God's law and even if I worked my fingers to the bone until the day I died, it wouldn't be sufficient to make it right. 

And so just as I pulled out my wallet in that pottery store to pay for what my daughter broke, my merciful Heavenly Father paid for what I have broken. 

There's nothing Liley could have done if I hadn't been there.

And there's nothing I could do, were it not for my Heavenly Father paying for my sin. 

Don't miss this.  My sins and your sins required a payment.  They had to be dealt with.  We cannot take that lightly--we just can't.  There would be no way for us apart from what He did.  How gracious, how beautiful, how loving, how good is the One who paid!

You are the treasure

I could not afford

so I'll spend myself

'til I'm empty and poor

all for You...

You revive me, LORD.

-Christy Nockels