Show Me A Life-time Guarantee
by Janet Stobie
While travelling in Vermont last month, I bought a pair of socks made of merino wool, labelled “Darn Tough.” These socks come with a life-time guarantee. If they wear out, shrink, develop holes, even if the dog chews them, I can return or mail them to the store and get a new pair. Now the price was $20.00 US, but my friends assured me that they had been wearing this brand of socks for a number of years. They had received replacements with no difficulty when the socks showed signs of wear and tear. As I handed over my $20.00, I imagined my feet at the age of 100, still clad in my “Darn Tough” socks.
God also offers us a life time guarantee. God’s love is ours forever, in life, in death, in life beyond death. That’s God’s promise. Regardless of the number of holes we develop. No matter how many times we mess up. God loves us even when we’re feeling tired, worn, beaten up. God’s life-time guarantee comes free, absolutely free. Starting with our conception in the womb, God loves us. And we don’t have to return our lives to the store to get them replaced either. God’s love is with us always through thick and thin, while the storms of life rage, when we’re happy and celebrating, when we’re filled with sorrow or remorse. And we don’t have to pay for it.
Still many of us won’t accept the gift of God’s love. Even when we say that Jesus paid the price already, still some of us aren’t satisfied. We haven’t paid, so the gift doesn’t exist or has no value. I sometimes think it’s not a lack of belief in God, rather it’s just that we don’t want to owe anyone, not even God.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)