Jessica Eaves was grocery
shopping in an Oklahoma supermarket when she noticed her wallet was missing
from her purse. Ms. Eaves was suspicious of a man who had been following her,
so she spotted him in an aisle and approached.
She said, “I think you
have something of mine. I’m going to give you a choice right now. You can hand
over my wallet and I will forgive you and even pay for any groceries you need or
I can call the cops right now.”
The thief reached into his
hoodie pocket and gave back the wallet. He started crying as they walked up to
the check out. Eaves spent $27 on groceries for the man, including milk, bread,
bologna, crackers, soup and cheese.
“The last thing he said
was, 'I'll never forget tonight. I'm broke, I have kids, I'm embarrassed and
I'm sorry,” Ms. Eaves reportedly recalled. She told the media, “Some people are
critical because I didn’t turn him in, but sometimes all you need is a second
chance.”[1]
Its been said that, “We
are never more like Christ than when we forgive and put grace on display.”
Grace is unexpected and undeserved. Instead of judgment, we get mercy! Instead
of shame, we get a second chance! Instead of captivity, we get freedom! Instead
of hell, we get heaven! There is nothing more shocking to the world than the
scandal of grace, because it totally reverses our expectations and subverts all
our notions of fairness!
David Jeremiah wrote:
“Grace is the delivery of a jewel that nobody thought existed, a burst of light
in a room where everyone forgot it was dark. Grace turns human politics on its
head right before our eyes. It overturns our moral applecart. The discovery of
grace is like finding a knot-hole in the high walls of heaven. We cannot tear
ourselves away from peering into it!”[2]
When grace invades a life the
recipient is never the same. Remember Hagar—desperate and thirsty in a barren wilderness?
The Angel of the Lord found her and opened her eyes to a well where she could
drink and live (Gen. 21). Think of Mephibosheth—the cripple who greased his
chin with sumptuous morsels from King David’s table (2 Sam. 9). What about
Barabbas—the death row criminal who squinted when he came into the sunlight
from a dark jail cell having just been set free. “Get out here Barabbas” said
the Roman jailer, “Jesus has taken your place” (Matt. 27:15-23).
There are few things more
shocking and transformative than grace. When it happens to us we are never the
same and when we are able to give it away people see God at work. -DM
[1] Anna
Kooiman, “Woman buys thief groceries after he steals her wallet,” Fox News, 28 October 2013 <https://www.foxnews.com/us/woman-buys-thief-groceries-after-he-steals-her-wallet>
[2]
David Jeremiah, Captured by Grace (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 2013), 12-13.
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