By Pastor Don Schatz

Free to a Good Home

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud Link

“Free to a good home.”  You might expect to see those words on a sign offering free kittens.  Mine is attached to a Facebook Market post offering a free, used table saw.  It works fine.  It’s just a bit big for my needs these days.  I purchased a smaller one.  I got plenty of use out of the older saw, after nearly 20 years.  It isn’t junk.

Many years ago, I heard a true story as a sermon illustration.  In a small town in rural Montana, the Pastor preaching saw a very old, beat-up pickup truck parked on the street.  It was rusty.  You could see through the bed of the truck to the street below, and through the floorboards in the cab.  Both doors were strapped shut with barbed wire.  There were no windows in the doors, nor did the doors have handles.  The front bumper was missing and the rear bumper, like the doors, was held on with barbed wire.  On that rusty rear bumper was a large sticker that read, “This vehicle is not junk.”

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 New International Version

Even broken, sinful, ashamed, self-centered, without the spark of real Life, God loved us.  Christ died for us.  And rose again.  Even lost in sinfulness, the Lord God valued us.  Do you need proof?  He sent his Son Jesus, and Jesus willingly died for us.  One doesn’t do that for people one hates.  God loved us.  He loves us still.  He loves you still.

In a sense, giving my saw to someone else is repurposing it.  It will still function as a saw.  But it will do so for someone else.  Just so, God in Christ has repurposed us for Life, salvation, forgiveness, eternity, love, grace, mercy and so much more.  We belong to the Lord God; we are his children.  On purpose!  God’s purpose.  We serve him out of love and gratitude.  On purpose.  Enjoy living purposefully today.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado