The best things in life are free

Maybe having a grandmother who was born in Edinburgh has something to do with my urge to get something for nothing. I don’t claim to be as fanatical as some folk about searching for “free stuff”, but there are moments when I spot an opportunity.

Sometimes these come during a visit to a garden centre. Garden centres in the UK have grown into massive, sparkling retail spaces with every conceivable item for sale, some of them having nothing to do with gardening. The smart display techniques require a huge investment by the burgeoning businesses, which means increased cost to be passed on to the customer. Everything, plants included, tends to be pricey. At one otherwise delightful establishment I was taken to, even the smallest cacti (I am building up my cactus collection again) were all of £3 each.

But then I spotted a segment of a cactus lying forlornly on the gravel bed where its fellows stood in pots, awaiting a buyer. It had obviously snapped off another plant. It struck me that it should grow on its own with a bit of care. It was the perfect opportunity to buy one and get one free! I chose another cactus for purchase and took both this and the segment with me to the cash till. “By the way,” I remarked casually, “I found this lying around. I didn’t break it off, honest! Is it OK if I take it too?” “Yes, of course, go on,” replied the friendly sales assistant.

Back home I found a pot and some cactus compost and placed the appropriate end of the cactus in it. Despite my cosseting it for some months, it still looked shrivelled and I thought I had wasted my time. But not long ago it started to fill out and develop. My shrewd move had paid off, and a free of charge new cactus was mine! Rarely have I taken such pride and pleasure in any plant that I have grown.

It doesn’t always work out that way. Earlier on I did a bit of haggling over a weedy-looking Japanese maple that had not found a buyer by the time the season had come to an end and the leaf fall had set in. Again I took care of it and it made early progress, but the rigours of last winter were simply too much for it and is now too weak to grow. But the satisfaction of taking a free or cheap plant away from an otherwise expensive garden centre is worth a lot, and no doubt I shall try again when the chance presents itself.

The beauty of the Christian gospel is that, while costly, it is made available free of charge to anyone who will believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour. The prophet Isaiah pointed out long ago how senseless it is to waste your resources on “paying” remedies for sin:

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.”

- Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV

“Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.”

- Psalm 49:5-9

The forgiveness won by the crucified Jesus Christ is worthy of respect and acceptance because it is not a part of any grubby financial deal. Truly the best things in life are free.

Words or pictures?

Do you think mainly in words or in pictures?

Some folk claim to be visual thinkers, while others respond better to the spoken or written word. Where religious practice is concerned, visual thinkers reckon that churches focusing mainly on words may not be for them. I once knew a man who converted to Roman Catholicism because others convinced him that he was a "visual thinker". He was led to believe that the spoken word was of little help to him. Only visual drama and imagery would touch his heart. The ancient churches have long provided this, because most of their early followers could not read. Pictures on the walls, statues, ornate clothes and moments of theatre in the liturgy spoke volumes to them. In the eyes of many, they still capture the imagination today.

Some might consider worship in our Reformed churches too wordy and intellectual. We have an answer for that. If our communication were to become all pictures without real depth, much important doctrine would be lost and Christians would fall into gross error by default. Look how the central gospel truth of Justification by Faith – that we are put right with God first and foremost not by good deeds but by faith in Christ as Saviour – was almost lost sight of by the time of the Protestant Reformation!

At the moment, much of my preaching and teaching is based on the book of the prophet Isaiah. I have tended to fight shy of him in the past. There are a lot of words in Isaiah. 66 chapters’ worth, in fact. Enough to exhaust any congregation if you present the book in the wrong way. Yet those words paint amazing pictures. How about the Song of the Vineyard in chapter 5, where God laments that His people are like a vineyard that produces only bad grapes? As the tenderly caring vineyard owner, He is heartbroken to see such a poor return for His pains. Or what of Isaiah 53 and the blow-by-blow sketch in words of the agonising death of our precious Saviour, visualised even though He would not arrive on earth for 700 more years? Or God the Judge and Saviour “treading the winepress alone” in Isaiah 63?

Significantly, the book of Isaiah starts like this: “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem ...” (Isaiah 1:1, ESV).

Eugene Peterson, pastor, scholar, author and poet, procuced in 2002 a popular paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, which has had widespread currency and acclaim. He likes to use the word “Message” in his rendering wherever he can. But he is glad to accept that the message of Isaiah is visionary, not just verbal: “For Isaiah, words are watercolors and melodies and chisels to make truth and beauty and goodness. Or, as the case may be, hammers and swords and scalpels to unmake sin and guilt and rebellion. Isaiah does not merely convey information. He creates vision, delivers revelation, arouses belief. He is a poet in the most fundamental sense – a maker, making God present and that presence urgent. Isaiah is the supreme poet-prophet to come out of the Hebrew people.”

For Peterson, the whole book of Isaiah is a Salvation Symphony in three movements, Judgment (chapters 1-39), Comfort (chapters 40-55) and Hope (56-66), with the Saviour God transforming men and women in the furnace of Holiness. We do well not to dismiss the visual and visionary impact of the word pictures in the Bible. Furthermore, our most devout and eminent hymn writers have offered us their own powerful word pictures to sing about and to ponder:

See, from His head, His hands, His feet

sorrow and love flow mingled down;

did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Pictures serve to illustrate. But, for digging deeper, give me every time the sheer power of words inspired by the living God.