Bobby came into the kitchen whistling tunelessly as he threw his jacket on the floor. Mum gave him a look at this, and he hastily picked it up again and put it where it belonged.

“How did the Bible Class go this afternoon?” Mum asked.

“Aw, all right I guess”, said Bobby, “But Mr. Brooks uses too many long words and I didn’t know what they meant”.

“Well, I know what you mean”, Mum said as she put the kettle on to boil, “What was one that really got you puzzled today?”

“It was the word ‘redeemed’ ” , Bobby said, “I know I’ve heard it before but it didn’t make sense. What DOES it mean anyway?”

“Well, it’s like this”, Mum said as she got the cups out and put them on the kitchen bench, “I remember once when I was little, my brother Jimmy made a little boat. He was so proud of it, and took it down to the river every chance he got to play with it. One day he came home rather sad and upset, and said that he’d let the string go and it had floated off down stream in the current. It was too deep for him to go out and get it”.

“Oh”, said Bobby, “What happened then?”

“Well, about a week went by and he came home one day from school and said he had seen his boat in the second-hand shop for sale. He had gone in and told the man in the shop that it was his boat, and the man said no it wasn’t because he had bought it, and if he wanted it he would have to buy it from him.”

Sarah had come into the kitchen and was listening to the story too.

“Ooh, that was mean of him”, she said, “What did Grand-dad say about that?”

“He told Jimmy he had better empty his money box out and see if there was enough money there to do that. So that is exactly what Jimmy did. He went down to the shop and bought his little boat back again”.

“I bet he was pleased to get it back”, said Bobby.

Mum smiled. “I will never forget the look on Jimmy’s face when he came back holding that little boat in his arms. He was saying to anyone who would listen….’this is my little boat twice….it’s mine because I made it and it’s mine because I bought it back!’ ”

Bobby had forgotten his question to Mum that reminded her of this story until she said, “So that is what ‘redeemed’ means Bobby. Jimmy had bought back his own little boat, and the Lord Jesus had to buy each one of us back because we had got lost until we wanted to come back to Him”.

“That’s a neat story”, said Sarah.

“Oh, I see”, said Bobby, “That means that we belong to Jesus twice then….we’re His because He made us and we’re His because He bought us when He died on the cross! That makes sense now Mum, and I won’t forget. Thanks. Come on Sarah, let’s go outside and have a practice with that ball!”