Little Charles and his father worked for several days making a toy sailboat. They painted it red and white and fastened pretty white sails on it. It was a fine boat.
How happy Charles was when Daddy took the family to the beach and he sailed his boat the first time. How pretty it looked on the water amid the rippling waves.
Suddenly an offshore breeze caught the sails and the little boat was carried beyond Charles’ reach. Sadly, he watched as it disappeared over the waves and out of sight.
Some days later Charles was strolling up the street of the town, looking in the shop windows. What was his surprise to see in the pawnbroker’s window his lost boat! Rushing into the shop, he exclaimed to the pawnbroker: “Sir, that’s my boat you have there in your window. Will you please give it to me? It’s mine.”
“Oh, no,” said the old pawnbroker. “The boat is not yours. I bought it off of a boy some days ago. The boat is mine.”
“But I made it,” insisted Charles. “I lost it at the beach. It’s mine!”
“It may have been yours once,” replied the pawnbroker, unbending, “but its mine now. If you want it back, you’ll have to redeem it. My price is $3.00.”
Poor little Charles! It was a hard lesson to learn, and sadly he returned home without his boat. For several days he worked hard, doing odd jobs to save enough money to buy back his boat. His Dad helped him out, and with the $3.00 in his pocket he hurried uptown to the old pawnbroker’s shop. The boat was still in the window, and hastily laying the handful of nickels, dimes and pennies on the counter, he told the man, “Here’s your $3.00, sir. Please give me my boat!”
As Charles walked home with the boat under his arm he said, “You’re twice mine now. I have redeemed you.”
That evening Charles’ father exclaimed to him how it is that we were all just like that boat. The Lord made us; He is our Creator, but we were lost through sin. Satan claimed us; we were “his goods.” We needed to be redeemed. The Lord Jesus Himself alone could pay the price of our redemption. Money cannot purchase this redemption and set us free; doing good deeds, trying to live good lives cannot save; the price of our redemption must be paid in the blood of another. Peter tells us: “Ye were not redeemed with... silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18,1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19).
The Lord Jesus paid the price of our redemption on the cross. Those who trust Him for salvation are redeemed in His sight. They are bought back to God—twice His!
Dear young reader, are you redeemed?
ML 10/13/1968