God’s Insurance Policy
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that older people and technology usually do not mix. For example, my wife’s grandmother bought an iPad a few years ago. We still aren’t sure why, but she wanted one. Every few weeks she would call up myself or my brother-in-law with some issue that she couldn’t seem to solve. One time she was complaining that the device was working very, very slow. It was only a few months old, why was this happening? When we went over, we discovered she hadn’t been closing out any of her apps. She had about 30 programs running, invisibly, in the back of her iPad.
Grandma also has a tendency to be too trusting of the internet. She has been fooled by those email scams before and has undoubtedly clicked on links that she shouldn’t have. I am sure that this, combined with not knowing how to work the device, is why it just stopped working after less than a year.
So Grandma took it to the local tech store and asked them to fix it. After looking at the tablet for less than 5 minutes, they said, “You have the insurance plan on this, instead of fixing it, we are just going to give you a new one.” And that’s how Grandma got her new iPad.
When she came home, we were all a little shocked, but after thinking about it, isn’t this the way God works? We don’t seem to know how to function even in our own lives. We don’t listen to the instruction manual (God’s commands) and we become broken and beaten by sin. Addiction becomes the virus that affects our system. Pride becomes the downfall to our emotions. The love of money, sex, or even self-image give us nothing but an error screen.
We try to fix it. We hit the restart button and hope that after a re-boot, things will be different. But how many times have you tried to quit your addiction, how many times have you tried to stay away from that temptation, how many times have you tried to create your own righteousness only to fall again and again. I’m not saying we can’t better ourselves, but simply that’s all it is. We might make ourselves “better” but never perfect.
Ezekiel 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
God talks about redemption not in terms of self improvement, but in words or complete newness. We don’t just get re-booted and restored, but become a new and better version.
John 3:5 – Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
We can’t be born again, not on our own, yet God doesn’t look at our incapability and shake His head. Instead, He put forth into motion the greatest insurance policy ever, sending His own son to foot the bill for our sin and gifting us, graciously, with a new life, a clean life in the kingdom of God, with a heart of flesh and the love of the Father.
When your car breaks down, don’t you call your insurance company? Likewise, in our sin, shouldn’t we run to God? The best part is that this insurance policy is free to you. All you have to do is call on Jesus, who is already there, pursuing you with His policy of Grace.