Redemption

Redemption

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

1 Peter 1:18-19

How much does redemption cost? For Loung Ung, the price for redemption was her mother’s jewelry.

Loung experienced a traumatic childhood in Cambodia under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Because her father had been a government official in a previous regime, the Khmer Rouge imprisoned him. Hoping to protect the children, Loung’s mother sent them all off to different orphanages, but shortly before Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, Loung’s parents and some of her siblings died. Loung managed to reconnect with her brother in a refugee camp, and six months later they sold their mother’s jewelry for passage to Vietnam, hiding in a boat underneath a pile of dead fish.

Loung eventually came to the United States, later graduated from college, and worked for a while with battered women. But several years ago she took a trip back to Cambodia. After sitting through a memorial service for people killed during the reign of terror, including thirty of her relatives, she decided to dedicate her life to Cambodian causes. She said, “My whole life is just about being redeemed.”

Having experienced incredible trauma at the hands of a corrupt government, Loung was moved to serve because she knew what she had been redeemed from. Our redemption as believers was not paid for with jewelry—it cost Jesus his blood. When we realize what Jesus did for us and all the rottenness he has saved us from, we become motivated to serve him with grateful hearts. Like Loung, we can say, “My whole life is just about being redeemed.”

Great Redeemer,

Thank you that you were willing to redeem us by paying for our sins with your blood. May we serve you with grateful hearts. Amen.