There's Always A Catch 97

I heard the funniest thing yesterday. My grandmother told me she saw two ten dollar coupons for a store in the paper. They were good for anything ten dollars or more. She is a coupon junkie, so naturally, she went. And though she has gotten money back from coupons at times she was hoping to come out pretty even. She told me of her struggle to find something that was over ten without being too much over, but she found slippers that were 10.97. When she got to the cashier she was told that she could not use the coupon. In the fine print it said it was not good on anything ending in a 97. I had to take a minute and let that sink in. I started laughing. Probably harder than she thought was warrented, but it just struck me so funny how we like to pull everyone in with a free ten dollars and then say, oh, sorry, there is a catch. You can't use it on your birthday, if you had cereal for breakfast, your last name starts with a Y, you are an only child, know an only child, have ever eaten a chili dog, or if you can sit throught the entire song of K.C. and The Sunshine Band's, "Shake Your Booty". Seriously, if something is given, shouldn't it be given. I know some who are not Christians may look at the Christian life this way. You are "free" but you can't do this, this, and this. I'm just so glad that it really isn't like that. Because unlike the coupon in the paper. The headline the world wants you to read is the list of things we should not do. The fine print however is so wonderful. It says, no you shouldn't do them because now you are free. Now you are no longer a slave to sin, but a servant to righteousness. I have the ability to do all the things I should not. The key is to live my life as much a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for the free gift of salvation, with no fine print, that I don't want to do any of those things. But the most wonderful thing is that there is always grace. Grace that when I do mess up, I am loved as much that day as I was when He thought of me as He gave himself for me. No catch anything there!