Shattered Glass

This past week was a little bit of a trying one in our neighborhood. It was also one full of lessons and reminders of exactly why we live here. One of our new next door neighbors Madji has become fast friends with our kids. He is 11 and plays outside with our boys almost everyday. This past week Madji along with our boys learned a valuable lesson on grace.

Wednesday afternoon Bennett, Preston and Madji were playing in our front yard. At some point they,  being boys, decided it might be a fun idea to hit rocks with tennis rackets. Bad decision. Madji hit a couple of rocks up and they went perfectly into our other neighbors car window. Picture above :(.

Braxton and I went outside to talk to Madji and the car owner. Madji was visibly shaken and was worried about what his mom would do. Madji's mom came outside and we explained what happened. My boys were watching from the front door and then without us knowing they ran upstairs and emptied both of their piggy banks. Preston and Bennett ran outside holding a ziplock full of money saying, "Mom, here take our money, please pay for the window. We don't want Madji to get in trouble.

Braxton then tells Madji's mom that we will pay for the window we will take the punishment for Madji. Madji then collapsed into Braxton's arms crying. In fact we were all crying. Even the car owner.

It was a beautiful picture of grace. Paying a debt we did not owe. My boys giving without being asked. The car owner even took a very minimal amount of money saying he would go get a piece of glass and fix the window himself.

That night as we tucked the boys in we talked about grace and how that is exactly what Jesus did for us.

I'm glad it happened. I'm glad my boys and Madji got a true picture of grace. Of what it looks like when Jesus takes the shattered glass in our lives and makes it whole again.