Published 10/24/19
By Greg Johnson
What If...
It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re on your way to the store with a few friends from the neighborhood. You know them pretty well because you’ve been playing with them for years. They don’t go to church, but for the most part, they’re good friends.
When you hit the store you go straight to the ice cream section. You’ve got a $1.80 in your pocket and you think you’ll have enough for a Dove Bar. Your friends fan out throughout the store in search of whatever goodies they want.
As you’re standing in line two of them just go right through without buying anything. They motion for you to come with them, but you’ve got to pay for your ice cream. They motion again, but you point to the Dove Bar and wait your turn.
As you get to the front of the line, you see a third friend pass the registers without buying anything.
That’s weird, you think. Looks like I’m going to be the only one with something to eat. I suppose I’ll have to share.
When you get outside, everyone else is down by the corner of the store. Walking closer to them, you see they’re munching away on candy bars.
“Where’s you get that stuff?” you ask.
“From the nice folks at the store, of course,” one says. “We tried to get you out of there so you wouldn’t have to waste your money, but you were clueless.”
“Clueless about what? Did you steal that stuff?”
“Hey, with such poor security, they deserve to have stuff stolen from them. That was the easiest store I’ve ever stolen from.”
You’re having a tough time believing they actually stole that candy, but the truth of it is being stuffed into their faces.
“Here, take a Reese’s,” one of them says, offering you one of your favorite candy bars.
Questions to Think On
• Knowing that was a stolen candy bar, what would you do or say?
• When are you most tempted to take something that doesn’t belong to you?
• What do you think should be the consequences if you steal?
• Mom and Dad: When you were kids, did you ever steal anything? Did you get caught? What happened?
What Does God Have to Say?
He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death. Proverbs 10:2
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