10) “There Ain’t No Price Tag On That”

I (Doug) keep replaying part of a conversation I heard this past Sunday night. I was helping a relatively new believer named Bill as he facilitated a new three-thirds group (discovery Bible study). The Bible passage being studied in the core of the group was Luke 15 – “The Parable of the Prodigal Son (otherwise known as “The Parable of the Waiting Father”). One of the newer guys in the study (we’ll call him Jack – not his real name) was listening intently to the whole discussion about the son who ran away and then came home. Now… you have to understand, … Jack has spent most of his life in jail. And when he finally *did* finally get out, he lost his leg in a fight. So here’s Jack in a wheel chair, tattoo sleeves covering both arms, listening intently to this Bible story. He hears the part about the father accepting and forgiving the son. His eyes misted just a bit and then, upon hearing the father’s accepting heart, he said, “There ain’t no price tag on that.”

I kept saying that to myself, over and over. I looked Jack straight in the eyes and tried to see into his heart, …and into his past life. And suddenly I got it: Here’s a guy who has *longed* to find a father-figure like the one in the story…. a dad who would say, in spite of it all, “Come back home, son. You’re forgiven.”

This past Sunday night, Jack taught me something about God’s mercy. Man. There just ain’t no price tag on that. It can’t be purchased. It’s abundant – but free. It’s priceless and unfathomable. It’s merciful and loving. And this past Sunday night, Joe felt it for one of the first times in his life.

There just ain’t no price tag on that.