Sally had just come in from school and was munching an apple that Mum had given her. The kitchen was lovely and warm and had the wonderful smell of cooking Christmas cakes.

“How did the Kid’s Club after school go today?” Mum asked.

“It was really cool” said Sally as she took another bite.

“What was the lesson about?” asked Mum.

“It was all about ..re..redemshun, I think the word was”, Sally said.

“Oh, you mean redemption”, Mum said, “That’s a really important word to know. How did your teacher explain it to you?”

“Well, she told us a story about a boy who had a little red sailing boat. He took it down to the river to play with and the string broke and it  went off down the stream and he couldn’t get it back”.        “Oh,” said Mum, “and what happened next?”

“Well, after a long time, he went down town past the second-hand shop, and saw his red boat in the window for sale. He went inside and told the man it was his. He was sure because it had a little scratch mark near the front of it where it had scraped past the rocks when it got loose from its string.”

“Really,” said Mum, “What did the man say to him?”

Sally took another bite of her apple, and said, “The man said it was too bad because he had just paid good money for it and if the boy wanted it back he would have to pay the price on the ticket.”

“Well, that was bad luck”, Mum said, “What did the boy do then?”

“He wanted it really badly, so he went home and emptied his money box out, but it wasn’t enough, so he got extra jobs after school and saved every cent he could get”, said Sally. “After a while, when he had saved enough money, he went back to the shop to get the boat. It was still in the window so he paid for it, and took it home. He was so pleased, he said it was twice his now. It was his because it was given to him in the first place, and it was his the second time because he had worked hard to pay for it all over again.”

“Well, that’s a neat story,” said Mum, “Where does the word redemption come into it?”

“Our teacher explained that it means to buy back something that once belonged to you and then got lost. The boy had to buy back his little boat, and then it was really his all over again. That’s what re…redemption means.”

“That’s right,” said Mum, “but there must have been more to the lesson than that. What else did the teacher say?”

Sally threw the core of the apple into the rubbish bin. “She explained that is what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. When Adam sinned, people became lost to God like the little boat going down stream, and that is why the Lord Jesus came to earth to pay for people’s sin. God had always said that those people who sin will have to die to pay for it. He knew they would never be able to be good enough on their own. And Jesus was the only person who never sinned, so He was able to pay for everyone’s sin if they ask Him to. I wonder why people wanted to kill Him when He only ever wanted to do good things for them?”

“That’s what sin does to us,” Mum said, “It makes us all bitter and twisted inside. So what was the point of the lesson?”

“Just as the boy had to pay redemption money for his little boat, so Jesus had to pay for our redemption by dying on the cross, and if we come to Him, He will have bought us back from being lost.”

“That IS a neat story,” said Mum, “And you’ve learnt it really well. Now it’s time for chores so off you go and do them”. She watched as Sally skipped away from the room and smiled to herself. She was so glad that she had learnt this lesson herself when she was a little girl; now she was a Mum and she knew this was the best thing she could have done.