FRUGAL ME?

Mary’s fourth grade homework assignment was to make sentences using the words in her spelling list, along with the definition. Coming across the word “frugal” in the list, she asked her father what it meant. He explained that being frugal meant you saved something.

Her paper read:

Frugal: to save

Sentence:  Maid Marion fell into a pit when she went walking in the woods so she yelled for someone to come get her out.  She yelled “Frugal me, Frugal me!”

It’s easy see how a fourth grader could confuse the words, but while the word “frugal” and the idea of saving are closely related, they are miles apart when it comes to Christianity.  The New Testament speaks often of our reconciliation with God as “salvation”.  Jesus himself said:

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

(Luke 19:10)

But God was far from frugal in His efforts to save us.  Centuries of preparation, the sacrifice of His only Son, the heartache of being rejected, God’s patience in waiting for us to respond — there was nothing frugal in any of it.  Quite the contrary, God lavishly poured out all that He had in the hopes of saving us.  “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15)

Praise be to God both for His willingness to save us and His unwillingness to be frugal about it!

Alan Smith