The young mother was “caught red-handed” by the store security people, who immediately called the city police. They had a simple, “open and shut” case, and there was nothing to do but arrest the woman.
But there were two little girls — babies, really —and a story that is all too familiar these days. The mother told the officers that her husband was being deported, she had been evicted, and she had no money to buy supplies for the babies. But touching though the story was, there was still a law to be dealt with. The policeman had sworn to uphold the law, so what could he do?
He found a way! Digging into his own pockets, he was able to pay the seventy dollars she owed for the baby supplies she had hoped to take out of the store and he even tucked in a couple of sandwiches as well.
There were no charges filed, her name was not released to the press, and the babies had food and supplies for a little while, at least. The little group broke up — security agents, store manager, police, and the little family — in a rosy glow of satisfaction with the outcome.
Of course, it will not be long before seventy dollars’ worth of baby supplies will be exhausted — not long before the sandwiches were gone — and what will happen? We can only hope there will be someone wise as well as tenderhearted who will take an interest in the case and find a more lasting solution.
We, too, as well as all humanity, owed a debt — a tremendous debt —with no possibility of paying it. But like the policeman, God found a way! There used to be a little Sunday school song; you may have heard it.
Love found a way to redeem my soul;
Love found a way to make me whole;
Love sent my Saviour to the cross of shame;
Love found the way — oh, praise His holy name!
Yes, God did “find the way,” and the price of our redemption was paid by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. We couldn’t pay —the whole world couldn’t pay —that tremendous debt of sin, but God found the way at His own terrible cost.
No one can estimate how great that cost was. No one can repay that debt, but all that God asks of us is to accept the gift — to receive the Lord Jesus as our own Saviour.
When we ask, “What shall I render [return] unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” the answer should be, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:1213).