May was an historic month for Becky and me. Oh, it was not a birthday or an anniversary, although each of those becomes more historic as the years go by. It was such an important event that I have chosen to share it with you in this installment of “Windows of Wonder.” Are you ready? Here it comes! We sent a check to the US Department of Education. You aren’t impressed? Perhaps you will be when I tell you that it was the last payment on the loans we had taken out to pay for our children’s college education. So, after 19 years, and 3 children, who have graduated from Luther College, we have finally finished paying our part of the costs incurred. To be sure, the burden of the payment has not been great, and our children have had much bigger loans to repay, but it is still wonderful to be able to celebrate! We have carried through on our promises, and one day soon, we will set the loan documents on fire over our burning barrel in the backyard. We have paid our debt in full!
But we were glad to be able to be a part of sending our children to college. All three of them secured degrees, had excellent records, and ended up with good jobs right out of college. Our 2 sons even met the women there who would become their wives. Becky and I have always said that there were lots of places we could have invested our money, but the most important investment we ever made was in the life of our children including their college education. So, in May 2009, after almost 2 decades of monthly payments to the US Department of Education, and other banks, we celebrate the last payment. Thanks be to God for the way he has supplied our need!
Our Father in heaven has taken care of each of us as well through the years. He has sent the rain and the sun; he surrounds us with family, friends, meaningful work, and all we need from day to day. He offers a world to thrill us with beauty and amaze us with wonder. God has indeed offered us so much.
But we, as people of this earth have brought upon ourselves a huge debt. We have rebelled against God, went our own way, and found that the power of sin, the flesh, and the devil has claimed us in such a way that we can never repay the debt that is ours. No matter how good we are in our daily life, sin continues to swamp us over and over again. In fact our few good deeds can’t even pay the interest on the mountainous debt that is ours; the debt continues to increase. Who has the ability to pay this debt of sin and transgression?
It is in the midst of our poverty that we hear a word from our Heavenly Father. The word of God comes from ancient times, “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more.. I will put my law within them. I will write it upon their hearts,” reads the book of Jeremiah. The book of Hebrews describes how it comes to pass. “In many times and in various ways, God spoke to our fathers, but in these days, he has spoken to us through his Son.” God recognized the difficulty his people would have in paying the Everest sized debt, so he provided a solution. No, it wasn’t a lower interest rate, nor a relaxed standard, such as you only have to keep 8 of the 10 Commandments, your choice, but it was a pure gift of grace. It was a gift of such stunning magnitude that the angels, the cherubim and the seraphim must have gasped in astonishment. Are you ready? Here it comes! “God sent his only son, so that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.” This is a gift so amazing that any who confesses the name of Jesus have their sins taken away. The huge un-payable debt that burdened all of humanity with its oppressive coercive power is whisked away by the Lamb’s sacrificial death on the cross. This awesome life giving force removes death’s hold, not only for the near future, but for all time. The father pays the debt, once and for all!
So, I invite you today to celebrate with Becky and me the good news that we have finally paid the college loans that assisted our children in their educational pursuits! But we invite you as well to a much grander celebration: The great good news of the payment of our greatest debt of all. We invite you to praise this God of grace and mercy who sent his son, Jesus, to remove the debt of sin that led to slavery and eternal death. We invite you to thank God for the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ the Lord!
Pastor Dale Halverson
