Little Boat Twice Owned

Bruce love the sea and boats. Spent the day at the harbor watching the boats sail in and out was to him the best treat he could imagine. He lived with his parents in a town located along the shores of a great light, and one desire was to have a little boat of his own to sale upon the blue waters.

One day his father said, “Bruce, why do not you make about? I will furnish all the materials and let you be work in my shop.”

This brought joy to the heart of Bruce, and not long after that, he showed his father abode of his own design and making. I believe he liked it a bit more than he would have any other, because he made it all himself. What love he had put into it! He had painted it red and blue, and with white sales it displayed the colors of our flag. It was not a boat large enough to carry people, but it could sail on the lake held by a long cord.

one beautiful day, down to the lake, went Bruce. He jumped into the light, and as he swam around, imagine his joy when he saw the boat proudly gliding on the blue waves! Of course, he guided it here and there by means of a long cord. All went well for a while. Then, “clang, clang,” running the fire alarm.

The fire engine could be heard in the distance. Hurriedly fashioning the cord, Bruce was off with the others. It was a big fire – a city block was swept away and Bruce lingered with many others for a long time. Finally, however, his thought returned to his toy. The way he sped to the lakefront – but alas, the little boat was nowhere to be seen. Along the shore went Bruce straining his eyes for a glimpse of his red – white – and – blue boat, not a trace of it could he find. His father suggested he buy a new one foreign, but Bruce said, “No, that would not be the one I made.”

Weeks went by, and then one day a strange thing happened. Walking down the main street of his hometown with his father, Bruce spied a little boat in the store window.

“Oh, Daddy,” “there is my boat, my little red – white-and- blue boat.”

“Are you sure?” His father asked.

“Oh, yes I am sure, see the mark on the front?”

“But Bruce, there is a price on this boat. It is for sale,” his father continued.

Then entered the store, and Bruce, to his father’s amazement, said to the storekeeper, “this is not your boat.”

Then Bruce’s father explained to the puzzle storekeeper the story of the little boat. Storekeeper said he bought the boat from a fisherman the very night of the big fire.

Turning to Bruce, the man said, “Laddie, a table at elderly. I let you have the boat for the price I paid the fisherman. That be all right with you?”

Bruce’s face gave the answer, so with his own money he purchased the little boat he himself had made.

Lovingly Bruce took the little boat in his arms and as he left the store his father heard him say, “little boat, you are really twice mine now. Your mind because I made you, and mine because I bought you.”

Application and invitation:

We have all gone astray like sheep from our wonderful God who made us. That he sent his only son to pay the enormous price of his own blood on Calvary’s cross Tobias back. So now we are twice his. 1st, because he made us (, ; ); then he lost us (; ). 2nd, because he redeemed us, or bought us back (; ; ; ), and when we receive Christ as our Savior, we become his children and belong to him again.

Ephesians 1:7 HCSB

We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Hebrews 9:12 HCSB

He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

John 1:12 HCSB

But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,

1 Peter 1:18 HCSB

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold,

Isaiah 53:6 NLT

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Romans 5:12 NLT

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Genesis 1:26 NLT

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

Genesis 1:27 NLT

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7 NLT

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

While every head is bowed and every eye closed, let us think carefully and quietly before God, and if you have never received Jesus into your heart as your Savior, we would like you to do so right now.