The Red Cellophane
THE RED CELLOPHANE
Read Romans 5:6-11.
“What’s that, Grandpa?” Sam pointed to some small cards and pieces of shiny red paper on the kitchen table.
Grandpa smiled. “Grandma found these when she was cleaning the attic the other day,” he replied. “When I was a boy, we used to get these as prizes in cereal boxes—they’re something like your baseball cards.”
“Wow! What are all the shiny red papers for?”
“That’s what makes these cards interesting, Sam,” replied Grandpa. “Here—look at this one. It has a picture of Babe Ruth on the front.” Grandpa showed Sam the picture of a famous baseball player, then turned the card over. “Now . . . see this question on the back of the card? It says, ‘What was Babe Ruth’s real name?’ To find the answer, we put this special paper right over the question, like this. Now what do you see?”
“George Herman Ruth,” Sam read. “The question disappeared, and the answer showed up! Cool!”
“Right,” said Grandpa, picking up the cellophane. “This paper taught me a great lesson.”
“You mean because you learned that guy’s real name?” Sam asked.
Grandpa laughed. “Something more important,” he said. “When I was young, I knew I was a sinner—I was the church troublemaker. I’d often heard that we need to have our sin covered by the blood of Jesus, but I never understood it until my Sunday school teacher brought this very same card to class one day. ‘I want one of you to read the question on the back,’ he said as he turned it over. But he had put the red paper over the question, so we told him we could see only the answer. He nodded. ‘When you trust Jesus as Savior, your sin is covered by the blood of Jesus. Then God can’t see your sin anymore. Instead, He sees the answer to your sin-problem. He sees Christ living in you.’ I’ve never forgotten that.”
Sam nodded thoughtfully. “I’m going to remember it too,” he said.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
What does God see when He looks at you? Does He see your sins, or are they covered by Jesus’ blood so that He sees Christ in you?
TO MEMORIZE:
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
Galatians 2:20
JESUS’ BLOOD COVERS SIN.
From the book
