by Marcia Sanders
“Hey, Papa!” David exclaimed. “I didn’t know that you and Nana were coming today. Wanna go fishing?”
“Sure.” Papa smiled. “Let’s grab the poles and go catch some grasshoppers.”
As the pair wandered down to the pond, David became quiet, lost in his own thoughts.
“Hey, you!” Papa gently thumped David on the top of his head. “What heavy thoughts are going on between your ears?”
“I was just thinking about the book I’m reading in my literature class. It’s called The Whipping Boy, and it’s about this prince who is such a brat that people in the castle call him Prince Brat — only behind his back, of course.”
“The Whipping Boy?” Papa asked.
“Yeah, according to the book, the law in that land said that no one could lay a hand on the prince, since he’s royal. But this prince was always doing naughty things that deserved punishment, so the king and queen found this orphan boy, Jemmy, and he got all the whippings that the prince should have gotten. That doesn’t seem fair, at all.” David sighed.
Papa shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”
“The story was making me really angry at not just the prince but his mom and dad too,” David continued. “I mean, how could they treat this other boy so badly? But then, I got to thinking about how Jesus died for my sins, not because He did anything wrong. So am I all that different from Prince Brat? Jesus lived on this earth without ever committing a single sin, but He died a horrible death on the cross so that I could live forever, so that my sins would be forgiven. That doesn’t seem fair either.”
“I can see why that would bother you,” Papa mused. “One difference, as I see it, is that Jesus came to this earth knowing what His mission was. He chose to willingly give His life for our sins. Mark 10:45 says, ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many’” (NASB).
“That’s certainly a difference,” David responded. “Imagine caring so much for someone that you would willingly die for them — and such a painful death too. It makes this verse in 1 Peter 2:24 even more meaningful: ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed’” (ESV).
David pondered the words. “By His wounds, I’ve been healed . . . His wounds . . . and He did it so that I could die to sin and live a righteous life.”
“That’s right,” Papa agreed. “Our reaction to His sacrifice either shows how grateful or ungrateful we are.” “I have always wanted to serve God with my whole heart,” David said. “But now it is even more important to me than it was before. I don’t want to be an ungrateful spoiled brat, but an appreciative child of God.”
