After a morning walk at Baker Park, Katie, Eden and I went to the store today to get some much needed groceries to stock the shelves of our empty fridge. Today, were stocked up on a number for different goods that we wouldn’t usually get. This was because we had a ton of coupons. Katie’s dad, who works for Giant gets these scratch-off coupons when a donation is made to benefit St. Jude’s hospital.
As we arrived at the checkout the initial total of our purchase was something like $90. And then the magic started. As the casher scanned our coupons the bill began to shrink. 1.50 here, 3.25 there…and so the story went. The bill we ended up paying was about $10 for some ice cream and mouthwash (you know the essentials). Some of the things we left for the food bank, others that were not bank worthy will make their way into youth group games.
As I stood with my daughter in my arms and saw the diminishing tally as the teller scanned coupon after coupon I thought about the way that this is kind of like God’s love for us. There is so much grace afforded to us that the bill that we rack up amounts to nothing because of the price that God has paid for us. Sure the ice cream and the mouthwash throw a kink in the illustration and make for bad theology, but it was a shopping trip and not a sermon illustration.
All in all, just a reminder of the way that God has made things more manageable for us.
