Scrap

Last week my most valuable material possession - a somewhat ageing Ford Focus - made some strange noises that it had never made before.

 

I'm no mechanic but experience (my own and others) informs me that sudden noises from underneath the bonnet (American: hood) are rarely good news.

 

It remained by the house until I could drive it gingerly down the hill to the garage.  In the event this was the last time I drove it though I did not know this at the time.  I knew this only when, later in the day, the service receptionist rang.  Sorting out the noise wasn't going to be cheap but that was not even half of it.  The car was not roadworthy for an entirely different reason that would also cost hundreds of pounds and within six months another urgent expensive repair would be required on a third thing that threatened to make it unroadworthy as well.

 

The calculation was not difficult.  This may have been my most valuable earthly possession but the repair bill was going to be its equal!  It was not worth repairing, it was off to the scrapheap.

 

I observe that the price God paid for the salvation of his people was a crazily high repair cost.  We must be very, very valuable to him.