Bob Russell stood in shock next to the empty parking spot outside his apartment in Philadelphia. His Austin Healey 3000, which had cost the 24-year-old graduate student $3,000 to buy from a friend, was gone. Stolen. Vanished from his life forever. The beautiful cream-colored, convertible, sporty British import that he’d used to impress his girlfriend Cynthia on their first two dates didn’t have any theft insurance on it. What college student would buy anything other than liability when they were scraping together everything needed to pay their bills?
A clerk at the police station took down the details of the incident on their old Teletype machine. There were no glitzy national crime databases back in 1970. No doubt the detectives worked diligently but no clues surfaced. The car had to be replaced, but only in Bob’s driveway, not in his heart. Every Austin Healey that passed for the next decade, two decades, three decades got a second or third look. Was it the missing magical car he’d gone out in with his now wife of many years? He hung on to the keys and vehicle registration, just in case.
As hard as it may seem to believe, you and I were stolen years ago as well. Not hot-wired in a parking lot, but tempted into disobedience to God. We get angry, tell “white-lies,” make cutting remarks and more. We call them “stumbles,” “mistakes,” “being human,” and “messing up.” God calls all that sin. God says that takes us away from enjoying His loving care. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:22But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)).
Searching for a Unique Car
The mammoth World Wide Web began to grow and spawn the massive garage sales of Craigslist and eBay. Bob began checking eBay listings constantly hunting for that elusive Austin Healey. The thief or perhaps someone duped by the thief forty-two years ago sold Bob’s car on Craigslist to the Beverly Hills Car Club with a nice clean-looking title registered in the state of New York. Bob was still checking every Austin Healey VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) on eBay.
But Bob kept on searching. Not for any old Austin Healey 3000 — for his Austin Healey. The Lord Jesus isn’t a religious concept. He’s a person searching not for crowds but for you personally. God has the diligence described here: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:44What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? (Luke 15:4)). God is going after one person who has lost their way in His universe — you.
The Cost of Recovery
Somebody at the Beverly Hills Car Club detailed the car, snapped a bunch of photos, typed in product data including a VIN number and listed it online, on eBay. On Friday, May 11, 2012, they had a call from the now 66-year-old Bob Russell. “I hate to sound indelicate, but you’re selling a stolen car.” What a wonderful ending that wasn’t. The FBI database didn’t list the car as stolen. Bob didn’t have his original police report — just keys, vehicle registration, signed affidavits from friends and a believable story. The car dealer, having paid $27,000 to buy and ship the car, graciously offered it to Bob for a mere $24,000.
But it wasn’t their car. Once stolen, always stolen — even over 350,000 hours later. Lt. Fred McQuiggan found the error — one digit mistyped from the old Teletype report into the modern FBI database. He fixed the one digit in the long ugly number and figured out a way to relist the stolen car without making it a new theft and the L.A. police showed up at the Beverly Hills Car Club and impounded the car. Over $1,500 of shipping, impoundment fees and travel expenses later, the car is sitting in Bob’s Texas garage. With a brake job and some loving restoration, Cynthia and Bob can go back to their dating days in their very own cream-colored Austin Healey 3000.
What the Lord does for His own had a far greater price than the price Bob paid to get his car back. God puts it this way: “Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:13-1413Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:13‑14)). The Lord Jesus loves us personally and came to earth, suffered the punishment for sin on the cross, died, rose again and returned to heaven. Now He tells us, no matter how many hours we’ve been separated from Him, that He wants us back. We simply need to accept that we are sinners, not stumblers, and go to Him for the forgiveness He offers through Jesus Christ. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).