Daily Devotional for November 27, 2018
Suffer the Consequences
Dylan picked a piece of crumpled paper from the ground and opened it up. It was a flyer advertising a sale at one of the local stores. He crumpled it back up and threw it on the ground.
“Why did you do that?” Mom called to Dylan from the porch.
“It’s nothing important,” Dylan said. “Besides, that’s how I found it, so someone else left it there like that.” He kicked the paper to the side of the sidewalk.
“Dylan, pick it up and throw it away, please. I know you didn’t put there in the first place, but we all need to do our share in keeping our neighborhood looking nice, even if that means picking up trash that belongs to someone else.”
Dylan sighed and picked up the paper. “This is the second time this week I got stuck with the consequences for something someone else did,” he said, thinking of the day before when his younger twin brothers were acting up at the park and Mom had taken them all home early. He threw the crumbled paper in the trash and sat down on the porch next to his mother.
“I know it seems like you’ve been getting the brunt of other people’s consequences lately,” said Mom, “but remember that there have been times when others have picked up your trash. In fact, I often pick up your candy wrappers around the house. Also, I seem to recall that the last time I had to take everyone home early from a fun outing was because of something you did. There is only one person who was completely innocent and had to suffer the consequences for those who were not. Do you know who that was?”
Dylan thought it over. “Was it Jesus?”
Mom nodded. “Jesus never sinned, but He died on the cross for our sins. He suffered the consequences we deserved so we could have eternal life with Him.”
Dylan thought some more about what his mom had said. Then he said a quick prayer thanking Jesus for suffering the consequences of his sin. – Melissa Yeagle
How about you?
Have you suffered the consequences for something someone else did? Even though you may not have done anything wrong then, you’ve done plenty of other wrong things. We’re all sinners, and we all deserve to suffer the consequences of our sin, which is separation from God forever. But Jesus died so we wouldn’t have to. He suffered the consequences you deserve so you could have eternal life with Him. (To learn more, click the “Good News!” button in the right column of this page.)
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