Sparkles, Butterfly Princesses, Couponing...and the Magnitude of God

Sparkles, Butterfly Princesses, Couponing... and the Magnitude of God

My daughter is absolutely smitten with princess sparkles. Any dress, any toy, any object decorated with princess sparkles is eye-catching to her; especially if they are pink. She is nine now and although she has some stuffed animals and dolls…her room is mostly pink and “sparkle…y”. I…am absolutely smitten by her. The simple beauty and magnificent personality behind those blue eyes is overwhelming. Watching her skip from one new discovery to the next just makes me smile. She gets so excited about everything, that she is involved with, that she pulls me into that world of imagination and sparkle with her. Hair flowing and curls bouncing, we spend precious time together; she…infatuated with her princess sparkles, and me…infatuated with her. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.

On one occasion, my daughter and I were doing the family grocery shopping at our local market. It is always quit a lengthy process because we have a large family and in an effort to keep the budget under some sort of control…I coupon. Using coupons is a wonderful way to cut down on expenses…especially if you have “stinky” boys. The savings in body wash and deodorant alone is worth the effort. However, couponing takes time and planning...and increases your average shopping time by at least double. Well…at least for me. The point is that my daughter and I had been in the store for some ridiculous amount of time. Each time we passed a certain aisle; I noticed that she would look up from her coupon list and stare, head turning, to try to see something on the end-cap. By the third time this happened, I had to see what was drawing her attention.

When we rounded the corner, her lips gasped. She had been holding her breath in silent anticipation of the thing she just knew was on the other side. She whispered, “There it is…they have it.” Through subscriptions and television, she had seen the advertisements of the upcoming “newest and latest” Princess Butterfly in a series she had been collecting. I asked her if she had brought her billfold. She answered with a proud “It is right here.”
For weeks she had been saving in anticipation of the new pink and lavender sparkling figurine. It had transparent glimmering wings and could really (almost) fly. Obvious to any of the collectors, this was the most perfect of all in the collection. It was the most colorful, the most beautiful, the most “sparkle-y-est”. The light in her eyes specifically indicated that this addition was worth every bit of the money she had earned.

She gets paid five cents per chore, and a dime for chores that she takes on as extras. Of course these amounts are only allowed to be earned if she has satisfied her assigned “five” each day…which include such things as making her bed and cleaning her room. She was proud to say that she had saved six dollars and forty five cents. She was ready to sacrifice it all and purchase the one thing she needed to complete her Princess Butterfly collection.

When we approached the cashier, my daughter proudly laid her glimmering package on the black check-out runner. The cashier smiled and looked at it approvingly, and even commented on its beauty. My daughter grinned and began to count out all of her coins. Then with a deep breath she handed them to the cashier. “It isn’t enough sweetheart”, said the lady behind the counter. And then, looking at me, she said, “This is not even close.” In all of the excitement and glitter glancing, somehow my daughter had missed that this new addition to the collection was a “special edition” piece…and cost far more than she had expected.

My daughter’s eyes lost their shine and her head dropped. She looked again to see if she might have anything left in her little pink billfold. But she had nothing. She had nothing worth the value of what she was wanting to purchase. As her face turned up to mine, I knew what she wanted to ask. She wanted me to help. With all the coupons in paper clips and rubber bands…and all the products in the carts divided in individual areas, ready for the necessary separate transactions…she wanted me to rearrange things and help. I did have enough money to pay the price for her purchase; if I changed almost everything I had planned, and gave up some things. But, I had done so much to work out all these coupon savings details. And, I wasn’t the one who had made the mistake. Still, I loved her and could see that she sort-of-understood the cost. She was so sad…so sorry that it had come to this.

I am not even remotely trying to say that God the Father and I do things similarly. It is my life’s goal to grow and become as much like His image as I was created to be. But never would I want you to think that this is the comparison I am making. However, in that instant, when everything I had been planning and saving for no longer mattered, I understood. In that moment when I heard myself telling the cashier that I would pay for the package in her hand…I realized something about the Father’s love for me…for us all…and the value of His sacrifices.

We have nothing of high enough value to purchase the one beautiful package we really want…the one that will make us whole. No amount of chores or labors can be done or saved up in a large enough sum to purchase salvation. The price tag for our redemption is something we can never pay. So the Father gave the cashier the price in full and sacrificed for us, His only Son. Oh, I’m sure He had other plans, and had worked really hard at those plans with the whole of creation thing…but sin entered and now it was, what it was. However, He did not hesitate. He handed over Christ and bought what we desired…a sparkling clean freedom. Now He offers the beautiful package of eternity to all of us as a gift. God the Father is smitten with us. He loves us more deeply, more completely, than we will ever comprehend.

Lord, today, in this place,
I see how childish I really am; wanting, asking, taking
Do I have any knowledge of the real cost?
Still Lord, as my Father, You offer to me that which I will never be able to afford.
Thank you for paying for me

In obedience
Rhonda D Loucks

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