April 17, 2026 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, April 17.
There’s a word that shows up often in the Word, but not so often anymore in our modern culture. It’s the word “redeem.” I first encountered this word, as a boy, not in a church, but in a grocery store. When my mother bought her groceries, along with her change, she would get stamps - S & H Green Stamps. Maybe you’re old enough to remember those too.
It was my job to paste those stamps into a paper book, and when those books got full, we would go back to the grocery store to trade them in for items, maybe a small appliance or a set of dishes or glasses. But we wouldn’t use the term “trading them in” - we would use that word “redeem.” The section of the grocery store where the items were kept was even called The Redemption Center.
We were bringing in something worth very little - just pages of paper and stamps - and redeeming them for things of value. It is a memory that is also a powerful metaphor for the love of God. There are times in everyone’s life when we may feel under-valued, insignificant, perhaps even unredeemable. Maybe these moments come after a divorce or the loss of a job or some other time of challenge and disappointment. But God never sees us like that. His love is consistent, is constant, is unconditional. And it is complete. In Romans 5:8 we find this truth - “God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The Father sees our value, and so does Christ the Redeemer, even in times when we do not. Maybe especially in those times.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
