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Title
Parable of the letter box (Page 2)
by Greg Carrick
When God wants you to meet him, he cannot be escaped,
and there's nowhere you can go where he can't be met.
After taking the teens photo, I asked his name, which he reluctantly gave
me. We asked him where his mates were. "They ran away", he mumbled. "We'll
get them later", I replied, "we know who they are."
The other two were locals, and one went to the same school as Joy.
Unlike me, God knows everyone, and knows who are his people, and who aren't.
No-one's anonamous to God.
When we told the one we caught that we were taking the matter to the police,
we panicked. "Don't call the cops, I'll take you to where the other two
will be, and we'll work something out. But don't call the cops."
The reality of judgement finally sank in.
After pleading for a while, we relented and got him to tell us where his
two mates would be hiding. So we drove to the spot, and sure enough, they
were there. When they saw us, they again tried to run, but I yelled to them,
"You either face me here now, or later at home with your parents. I know
who you are and where you live."
God knows where you live. And who you
are. And what your life is like. Yet he loves you enough to want to help
you out of your troubles.
After a lot of discussion, the three teens decided that to get out of facing
the police and their own parents, they would replace the letter box they
had destroyed, and write a letter apologizing to the owner for their thoughtlessness.
We, on the other hand, can't do that with God. We can't say, "Hey God, to
get out of being judged for my sin, I'll give you a brand new life, and
never do wrong again." We can't do right in God's site now, what makes us
think we can turn our life around on our own? We don't have the ability
to live without sin.
Thankfully, God has done the hard work for us. Our sin has been dealt with
by being placed on Jesus when he died on a cross. Our task is to repent
from (turn away from) our old life, and take the offer of salvation he extends
to us.
The story finished the next day when I saw them walking up the street towards
me, carrying something wrapped in a shirt. It was a replacement letter box,
and inside was a letter of apology.
That would have been a sweet ending, but I'll always wonder where they stole
the letter box from!
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