Bible Reading: Romans 5:6-11

"Oh no!" groaned Jonas as he and his mom stood looking at the dent in their car. "What happened?"

"Apparently someone backed into the car while we were shopping, but whoever it was didn't leave a note saying they did it." Mom sighed. "Well, there's nothing much we can do about it, but I suppose we should make a police report."

After the report was made, Jonas and Mom hurried home to tell Dad about the accident. "Well," Dad said as he went out to look at the car, "I'm thankful it's just a car that's damaged--nobody got hurt." He examined the dent in the fender. "This isn't major damage, but body work can be quite expensive. I'll call the insurance company--I'm pretty sure they'll cover it."

"I hope so, but it still doesn't seem fair," said Jonas. "The person who backed into us should pay the bill. It was their fault."

"I know, Jonas, but we can't make them pay when we don't know who they are," said Mom. "So if insurance doesn't cover it, we'll just have to take care of it ourselves."

"What? That's not fair at all!" said Jonas. "It makes me mad. We shouldn't have to pay when it's not our fault. Whoever hit us shouldn't just get away with it."

"No, and if we end up having to pay for damages that are someone else's fault, I can't say I'll be happy about it," said Dad.

"Me neither," said Mom. "But it's not good to drive around with a big dent in the car."

"Tell you what," said Dad. "When we feel annoyed that somebody is getting away without paying, let's remember that we don't have to pay for everything we deserve to pay for either. Jesus willingly paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross, even when He knew who was at fault--us!"

"That's right," said Mom. "So let's not spend our energy being angry about this dent. We have so much to be thankful for--nobody got hurt, the damage to the car is minor, and above all, Jesus paid the price for our sin so we wouldn't have to!"

–Hazel W. Marett