God is a Redeemer
When I was a kid I would hunt around my neighborhood for bottles and then take them to my local market. I remember it was called the "Bissonet Superette," on Bissonet street in Houston, Texas. I would take my bottles and get money for them and then buy a nice, cold Dr. Pepper to enjoy on those hot, humid, dog days of the Texas summers. My goal was to enjoy a cool drink, but I was also learning about a very important thing about the nature of what it is to redeem something. These bottles were cast away, having served their purpose for the original buyer.
God redeems a lot of things, mostly people's lives. He leads them from darkness to light and takes the life that was deliberately wasted and causes all of the mess of it to be reversed and changed into something new. A bad habit that is changed into a virtue, an addiction transformed into grace and new life, a family, tribe, or even a nation changed by the influence of love and righteousness and justice; these are the works of a Redeeming God.
Just as I was searching out to find bottles to slake my thirst for Dr. Pepper and a reprieve from the Texas heat, God is searching for lives to redeem. He wants to buy us back from whatever ditch or side street we've been thrown into, and bring us back into alignment with God, ourselves, and others. Psalm 23, that song about God being a Shepherd and watching over us to lead us to green pastures and beside still waters is a great picture and metaphor for God's actions as a Redeemer. Many over the centuries have been quieted and comforted by the words of this most famous and familiar psalm of David. Jesus used this familiar word picture to name Himself and to describe His unique work on planet Earth, by saying " I am the Good Shepherd." And just as I was the "Shepherd of the Bottles", redeeming and buying them back and giving them new life and purpose, God is in this business as well. His buyback plan is still in effect, and paying off for anyone who wants to participate in the program. He will take your messed up, mussed up, mucked up life in exchange for the perfect life of the Son of God. The Message version, a translation of the Bible in modern language by author Eugene Peterson translates the familiar passage John 3:16 this way: "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." That's what it means to redeem, to put things right again.
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