The Contract

      One lovely autumn afternoon, I visited my grandchildren, Emily, who is 8 years old and Beth, who is 4 years old, so their parents could go out together for the evening. Emily, Beth and I always have a good time together! I brought along a craft project, for us to do together.
      Emily and Beth like to put on performances, with me as the audience, and I like to take videos. They sang songs together and made up a skit. In one performance, Beth was strumming a child’s doggie guitar (which is a child-sized guitar, shaped like a dog, battery-operated, playing tunes about dogs or featuring howling dogs). I could not understand their amusement at me, as Beth voicelessly mouthed words, and Emily sang out from a hidden location. They were all giggles and did it again. Then I realized the joke—they thought they had fooled me into thinking that Beth was singing, which it was really Emily! We all had a good laugh over that!
      It turned out that Emily had persuaded Beth to “pay” her for her singing performance. To deter Emily from demanding money from her sister, I suggested that Emily needed a contract to enforce the payment of the singing fee. Emily wrote out a contract, in which Beth agreed to pay her $.25 for Emily singing. Since Beth was not yet able to read or write, Emily printed out Beth’s name in dotted lines and had Beth trace the signature.
      When Emily presented the signed contract to Beth, and demanded the quarter from Beth’s piggy bank, Beth tearfully refused. I doubt that Beth understood what the contract was all about and suggested to Emily that she disregard her contract. However, Emily was adamant that the contract should be honored.
      Since the parents were home by then, I asked Emily what her parents would say. Emily raced downstairs to ask her parents. She returned, beaming, holding in her hand, a quarter, that her father gave her. The contract was honored and Beth was cleared and relieved, without any more tears.
      Emily and Beth’s father demonstrated toward Emily and Beth the same love as our Heavenly Father towards us. The father decided that the contract should be honored and he paid the price to redeem Beth from tears and anguish. So, our Heavenly Father saw our helplessness in facing the charges of death, due to sin, and He paid the price to redeem us, by sending Jesus to sacrifice His life for those who believe in Him.