Expensive Grace

As a cigar aficionado, I can tell you that you don’t need to spend a great deal of money to get a truly great cigar. However, there are some very pricey ones out there. Today I sold a box that went for $500.00. If I went and put that kind of money into a box of cigars that are quite literally here today and gone tomorrow, Mandi would have my head in John the Baptist style. It is hard for me to imagine what it would be like to have the kind of income where I had that kind of money to burn. He didn’t buy them because he needed them. He bought them because he wanted them. He was happy to get them.

It got me thinking. God needs you and me about as much as that person needed those cigars. But to get us was expensive, more expensive than we can comprehend. All the treasure on this earth could not pay the redemption for one of the least of us. And we were not some shiny bauble or cool trinket; we were broken, dirty, and condemned. But Jesus did not think His life was too precious a price to pay to redeem us. He didn’t pay for us because He needed us. He wanted us. He did it for His own enjoyment, for His own happiness. We were bought to be brought into His family, to join Him in the love and joy that He has with the Son and with the Spirit. It is hard for me to comprehend how much grace the Father had to redeem us. How rich He is! How generous He is! But I am enjoying the journey of learning it.