Grace

Last week, someone hit our car as it was parked by Christina’s school. Because she was honest enough to leave a note, we decided to go easy on her. We could have soaked her for the complete repair job ($1,900 top quote), and we would have been well within our rights. That’s what insurance companies are for. We could tell that money was a bit of an issue, so for a lot of reasons, we decided to do 90% of the repairs for about 30% of the cost. We would be left with very minor damage, not even worth mentioning. We felt pretty good about our decision, although many people (including staff at the body shops) thought we were crazy. Charlene and I have been driving for over twenty years, and have never had an at-fault accident. Recently, though, we borrowed someone’s very expensive truck, and ended up rear-ending someone. Damage was minor, and the owner forgave us. How could we not be gracious after that? Then I got this e-mail:

My wife and I were discussing your predicament about your car and we came up with an alternative solution.

As a good chance to witness to her about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we would like to give you the $600.00 for your paint job and you could offer her complete grace.

Of course, we would like to remain anonymous.

This week, I got to drive around in a rented Monte Carlo (hey, I asked for the economy car and got this instead for the same price), had my car fixed, including some extras we never paid for (they thought our son was cute), and think about how much we’ve been forgiven. I’m forgiven. As they say, pay it forward.