Bought Back

Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:3-8; 1 Peter 1:18-19

Rory was almost in tears when she got home from a shopping trip with her older sister. “You won’t believe what I saw at the thrift store!” she told her mom. “My doll!”

“Your doll?” asked Mom.

“Yes! My doll! The one Grandma gave me. I know it’s mine—it has a scribble mark on one arm and an eye that sticks shut.”

Rory’s sister Skylar nodded in agreement. “It was Rory’s doll, all right. I could pick that thing out of a lineup!”

“How did it end up at the thrift store?” asked Mom. “I haven’t donated anything lately.”

Rory shrugged. “I don’t know. I think I took it to Scarlet’s house not too long ago…or was it Freida’s house?” Rory threw up her hands. “I can’t remember! But I must have left it somewhere and it accidentally got donated.”

“Well, let me call the store and explain the situation,” said Mom. She got out her cell phone and made the call. “I’m sorry, Rory,” she said a few minutes later, “but the clerk told me they aren’t allowed to give back items once they’re for sale in the store.”

Rory burst into tears. “But it’s my doll! They can’t sell it to someone else.”

Mom sighed. “Well, if you really love that doll, you may have to buy it back.”

“She shouldn’t have to pay for something that’s hers,” said Skyler. But Rory ran to her room and began shaking coins out of her piggy bank.

Skylar agreed to drive Rory back to the store. When they returned, Rory came skipping into the house, the doll nestled tightly in her arms.

Mom sighed with relief. “You redeemed her,” she said, smiling.

“I what?” asked Rory.

“Redeemed her—bought her back. You did for your doll what Jesus did for us,” Mom explained. “He made us for Himself, but when Adam and Eve sinned, it put them—and all the people who came after them—under Satan’s power. So Jesus paid the price to redeem us.”

“He did that when He died on the cross, didn’t He?” asked Rory.

Mom nodded. “He bought us back with His own blood. When we trust in Him, our sins are forgiven and we become God’s children.”

-Violet E. Nesdoly

How About You?

Did you know that Jesus paid the price to redeem you—to buy you back from the control of sin and Satan? Because Jesus shed His blood for you, you can become God’s child and have eternal life with Him! Have you accepted His gift of salvation, or does Satan still own you? If you haven’t trusted Jesus as your Savior, do it today! Then you’ll belong to Him. (To learn more, click the “Good News!” button in the right column of this page.)

Today’s Key Verse:
Ephesians 1:7 (NKJV) In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Today’s Key Thought:

Jesus shed His blood to redeem you