Richard Roberts
A little boy once fashioned a sailboat of wood and paper, and he took it behind his house to a little stream. He set the boat on the water and watched it as it sailed.
Suddenly, the wind began to blow, and the rain began to fall. Before the little boy realized it, the wind had carried the boat downstream and out of sight. Thinking he’d never see his sailboat again, he went back home with tears streaming down his face.
The days and weeks went by until one afternoon the little boy went downtown with his dad to do some shopping. As they passed a secondhand store, the little boy looked in the window, and there was a sailboat. It looked a lot like his. His eyes brightened, and he quickly ran inside, picked up the boat, and turned it upside down. He found the initials he’d carved with his own pocketknife. And, joyfully, he bought the sailboat from the merchant of the store.
As they drove back home, his dad overheard the little boy saying, as he held the boat close to him, “Little boat, little boat, you’re twice mine.”
His dad asked, “Son, why do you keep saying, ‘Little boat, little boat, you’re twice mine’?”
The boy said, “Daddy, it is mine twice. It’s mine first because I made it with my own hands, and it’s mine twice because I bought it back.”
That is the story of God’s redemption and how He loves us, for with His own hands, God made you and me. To Him, we are unique and irreplaceable. Even when you and I had gone our own way, God longed to have us back. And through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary, He bought us back. He has paid the purchase price for our salvation.
God will never love you more than He does right now, and He will certainly never love you less. He created you to be His, and He loves you as His own.