The Bungee Cord  5-24-21

Hello,

 

One of my “parables”.

 

The forgiveness of God is like…..

 

A man went into a local restaurant for his evening meal.  He sat down at the table to which he was escorted, leaned back in his chair and awaited the server to come to bring him the menu.  In short time a well-dressed young man came up to his table carrying a menu and a glass of water.

 

“Good evening, sir,” said the server handing him the menu and sitting the glass of water on the table.

 

Immediately, the man saw something that nearly turned his stomach.  “Sir,” said the man, “there are dozens of mouse turds floating in this water!”

 

“Oh,” said the server, “I am sooooo sorry.”  The server grabbed the glass of water, quickly stuck his hand in it and scooped out a bunch of the mouse turds and then set it back down in front of the man.

 

Caught off guard, the man cleared his throat and said, “Excuse me, but there are still a couple of mouse turds floating in the water.”

 

The server eyed the glass with unbelief and said, “Oh, I am so very sorry,” and he picked up the glass again, took a good look at it, and proceeded to stick his hand back into the water, and this time was careful to scoop out all of the mouse turds, and then he set it back down in front of the man.

 

Not believing what he was seeing, the man said to the server, “Sir, do you expect me to drink this water?”

 

“Why not?” the server responded.

 

“Because there were mouse turds in it!”

 

A bit perturbed, the server took the glass of water, walked over to the sink, dumped out the water and refilled the glass with water from the tap, brought it back to the table, set it down in front of the man and said, “Here you go, sir.”

 

Seeing what the server had done, the man looked with shock at the water that was set in front of him.  “I can’t drink this water,” the man said to the server.

 

“Excuse me,” said the server.  “What’s the problem?”

“This glass had water with mouse turds in it.”

 

The server rolled his eyes in disbelief, and grabbed the glass, took it over to the sink, dumped the water out, and then he spit into the glass, took a dishcloth and scrubbed the inside.  He then filled it with water, brought it over to the man, and set it in front of the man.

 

“Are you kidding me?”, the man said to the server.

 

“What’s the problem now?”, said the server with a humph in his voice.

 

“I saw what you did.  This glass still isn’t clean.  I can’t drink this water.”

 

“Sir,” said the server, “what will it take for you to drink the water?”

 

“What I need you to do is to take this glass over to that sink, squirt a goodly amount of dish soap into it, scrub it with clean, hot water, dry it with a clean towel, fill it with clean water, and set it in front of me.”

 

“Ok…ok…ok,” said the flustered server, who did just what the man asked.  And when the server placed the glass of water in front of the man, the man picked up the glass-full of water, drank it down, and said, “Thank you.”

 

“For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”  (Romans 3:23,24)

 

All who have ears, listen.

 

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger