For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 1 Cor. 5:21

“…You were bought at a price.” I Cor. 6:20

One day a little girl was combing her mother’s hair leaned over and said,” Momma, you know I love you, don’t you?”

The mother said, “Yes, I know.”

“Momma, I love to comb your hair with these little strands of gray but so full and so beautiful. I love to comb your hair. Mother, I just love your voice. Your voice is so sweet. I love to hear you sing. As far back as I can remember your lullabies would gently put me to sleep. I love your voice.

“Momma, I just love lookin’ at your eyes as they sparkle and the dance with delight. I just love lookin’ into your eyes. They mean so much to me.

“But, Momma, why…tell me why…why did you let your hands get so scarred and so rough. Why didn’t you get you some lotion or some cream? Why didn’t you take better care of your hands?

There was a long moment of silence.

The mother reached around and caught her little daughter’s hands and pulled her around, picked her up and set her on her lap and said, “Mary, I’ve got something to tell you; maybe I should have told you this before now.”

“What is it, Momma?” Mary asked.

“Mary, there was mother who had prayed to God to give her a baby girl. And the Lord answered her prayers and gave her this baby girl. And she got so much joy in doing for this baby girl. She loved the sewing and the knitting and making clothes for this baby girl.

“One day while this mother was ironing remembered that she needed something from the drug store and she looked there and the little baby girl in the crib sleeping. The mother thought I’ll ease off to the drug store and get these articles and get back before her nap is over.

“And, Mary, this mother went to the drug store and on her way back, fire trucks passed her but she didn’t think nothing of it until she got to the corner. When she got to the corner and looked, the fire trucks were parked in front of her apartment; and the ladders were up to the third-floor window where she lived.

“All of a sudden, Mary, she remembered that when she was ironing and had decided to go to the drug store she had left the iron on the board. And it was her apartment that was on fire and that her little girl was in there!

“She began to run and the firemen would pull at her to try to stop her and the policeman reached for her to try to stop her and she pulled out of her coat and ran up the stairs and opened the door to her apartment and Mary as she moved across the floor she looked and flames of fire were reaching out to embrace her little girl so she raced over to the crib grabbed her little girl and pulled her to her bosom just as the flames of fire were reaching for the little girl they burned the mother’s hands.

“Mary, I want you to know that little girl was you.”

Tears began to roll down Mary’s cheeks. She began to weep and wash those hands with her tears. She began to kiss them and said, “Oh, Momma. Oh, Momma. Oh, Momma how I love your hands! Because your hands saved me!”

I’m reminded about what the prophet Isaiah said hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

“. . .He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

I don’t know about you, but I love Him. I worship Jesus because he took my punishment and because He purchased my salvation with his broken body and shed blood.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ~ Jesus