Ecclesiastes 7:20 “There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and never makes a mistake.”

Traffic was flowing, and my GPS showed me arriving early for the retreat. The enormity of my assigned topic, “Our Brokenness and God’s Sweet Redemption,” weighed on my thoughts. Through much preparation, I had searched scripture for every reference on redemption. The word meant to being ransomed or bought back from captivity and freed from any debt or sin. I knew that, yet I still felt ill-prepared to speak those words. I prayed for a deeper understanding of my costly sin and a greater appreciation for God’s sweet redemption.

I rehearsed my speech again in my head until traffic came to a halt. A massive backup lay ahead. In the middle of the road lay a demolished vehicle. Its windshield was shattered, its frame was a mass of twisted metal, and car parts littered the asphalt. As traffic diverted around the wreckage, everyone seemed to enjoy rubbernecking and pointing to the carnage. Without a doubt, this car was broken and in desperate need of a tow truck.

Grateful to be moving again, I continued on, but before I arrived, on the side of the road sat another car. This one was a new model, sparkly clean and in perfect condition, except for one thing. This vehicle, too, was broken-down and needed a tow truck. But whatever was wrong with this car remained invisible, perhaps hidden under the hood. There was no rubbernecking and no slow-down of traffic at all.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for showing me the perfect object lesson for redemption. You see, those cars were vastly different from each other. One was obliterated, the other looked perfect. One caused much attention and gawking, and halted traffic. The other went virtually unnoticed. However, their commonality was found in one thing: their brokenness. Neither car had the ability to move on its own. Both were in desperate need of help.

Sin is like that. Some sins are ugly, leaving us visibly broken, and shattered. These sins cause a heap of disruption all around. They cannot be hidden and others shake their heads in disbelief and point their fingers at all the sordid details.

However, like the new car stalled out on the side of the road, some sins are invisible. On the outside all appears perfect and whole, yet these quiet sins, residing deep within our hearts, render us just as broken as the big, shattering ones.

Ecclesiastes says sin breaks us all. But Titus 2:14 tells us we do not remain broken. The blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Savior and Healer redeems us and makes us better than new. Like broken vehicles requiring a tow truck, our sins, both shattering and invisible, require a redeeming Savior. So stop right here to take a moment of praise, because friend, we have that Savior!

Father God, we praise You for redeeming us and making us whole again.

Blessings,

Rita Cochrane