An Amusing Story About Redemption
Our pastor, John, was teaching on the book of James about not slandering. His illustrations were pertinent to our modern culture, but it got my mind back to the roaring ‘20’s…
This is a story about my Great-grandmother, Granny Edwards. She was married to “The State Senator”.
It so happened that one sunny day, Granny Edwards headed off to JC Pennys to return an undergarment that she had bought for her daughter. However, Granny made a tragic mistake: she did not bring her receipt. (Back in those days, in a small southern town, everyone knew everyone, so she figured she didn’t need it.)
Unfortunately for her, there was a new floorwalker that day, eager to earn his salt. He caught her wandering about the store, bag of undergarments in hand. Without so much as a howdy-do, he handcuffed her, called the police, and in front of the whole town, had her driven off in a police car for shoplifting.
Well, the newspapers had a heyday. “The State Senator’s Wife Arrested”!
Her case went to trial. A real trial with a real judge and jury. The State Senator hired a fiery lawyer to defend his wife. At one point, her lawyer leaped up with 30 silver dollars in his hand and casts them at the opposing lawyer’s feet, shouting, “Here! Here’s your blood money!” (Look that one up in the gospels to see the biblical allusion.)
Anyway, Granny was found not guilty.
But the story did not end for the family. She was so traumatized by the events that she never shopped at Pennys again. Her daughter also was so traumatized that she never shopped at Pennys. She told my father the story, over and over again, and he never shopped at Pennys. I grew up hearing the story my father. By then, the thing had become part of the family identity. “We don’t shop at Penny’s”. My own kids grew up knowing it, too.
Then something happened. One of my sons was on a medication that required him to stay out of the sun. The doctor recommended a “cowboy hat”. Now, my son has a large head, so we couldn’t find a hat anywhere that fit. The store clerks would say things like, “We don’t carry that size, but you should check Pennys. They have lots of hats this year.”
Finally, in desperation, I had to face it- I was going to have to go to Pennys.
My kids were nervous, “But Mom, we don’t shop at Pennys.”
I was nervous, too. I prayed for strength. We drove to Pennys. We hesitated at the store’s glass door. We took a few large breaths. Then in one moment a 5-generation boycott was broken.
We found the hat.
Since then, I shop at Pennys. In fact, when I shop for clothes for myself, it is always the store that has something that is “my style”. I like Pennys.
So what is the point of this story, you may ask?
If my Granny Edwards had been able to write the end of her trauma with Pennys, after the trial they would have written an apology- maybe thrown her an appreciation dinner or named a sale event after her. Nothing like that ever happened. For her, the problem was never fixed.
The problem never did get fixed. But what the God of the universe did was- He redeemed. He created an unavoidable circumstance that required our choice to forgive. When we forgave enough to walk into the store- He made a new and good relationship with that retailer.
How many of things in each of our lives are remaining unforgiven, because they can’t be fixed? What if God’s point is this: He may not want to “fix” the broken thing. Instead, maybe He wants to redeem by creating something new.
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