Many years ago, the Jansen...
Illustration
Object:
Many years ago, the Jansen family of Norway -- father and mother and two young
children -- had booked passage on a steamship to America. They'd used up all their
savings on the tickets. Sympathetic neighbors had given them bread and cheese for the
journey, which they took with them into their accommodations in steerage -- the
humblest part of that mighty ocean liner, the Stavanger.
The parents had calculated they had enough cheese and bread to last the ten-day journey. They were grateful for the simple food they had, and figured they would find much better fare in America, once they got established.
About six days into the trip, the couple's young son, Ole, let it be known that he couldn't so much as look at another cheese sandwich. His father took pity on him, and gave the boy a few coins to go to the ship's store and buy an apple or some other fruit.
Two hours went by. Ole did not return. The parents grew worried, and Mr. Jansen set out to find his missing son. Up and up he climbed, up each successive ladder out of steerage. With each flight of stairs, the surroundings grew more luxurious, and Mr. Jansen felt more and more out of place. Finally, after a very long time, he found Ole -- in the grand dining room. There he was, seated at a table, surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of food: everything good you could possibly imagine. "Ole, Ole," the father chided, "what have you done? I can't pay for all this food. They'll arrest me, for sure, and send us all back home!"
"It's all right, Father," Ole replied, as he gave back the coins. "None of this food costs a thing. They told me it's included in the price of our ticket. We could have been eating like this the whole trip!"
The new kingdom, into which we have been "transferred" by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, is a place of boundless grace.
The parents had calculated they had enough cheese and bread to last the ten-day journey. They were grateful for the simple food they had, and figured they would find much better fare in America, once they got established.
About six days into the trip, the couple's young son, Ole, let it be known that he couldn't so much as look at another cheese sandwich. His father took pity on him, and gave the boy a few coins to go to the ship's store and buy an apple or some other fruit.
Two hours went by. Ole did not return. The parents grew worried, and Mr. Jansen set out to find his missing son. Up and up he climbed, up each successive ladder out of steerage. With each flight of stairs, the surroundings grew more luxurious, and Mr. Jansen felt more and more out of place. Finally, after a very long time, he found Ole -- in the grand dining room. There he was, seated at a table, surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of food: everything good you could possibly imagine. "Ole, Ole," the father chided, "what have you done? I can't pay for all this food. They'll arrest me, for sure, and send us all back home!"
"It's all right, Father," Ole replied, as he gave back the coins. "None of this food costs a thing. They told me it's included in the price of our ticket. We could have been eating like this the whole trip!"
The new kingdom, into which we have been "transferred" by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, is a place of boundless grace.
