Do you believe it’s September? Here in the Atlanta area the kids have been back in school for a number of weeks already. They’ve exchanged their water “noodles” and sunscreen for school books and back packs. A wonderful exchange in Mom’s eyes, but maybe not so wonderful in the eyes of the children. They’d love for summer to last 9 months and school only 3. But that’s one trade that will never happen, thank God. Speaking of exchanges ~ trading one thing for another ~ my husband found something buried in our house recently that gave me a great reminder of another kind of exchange, one that’s much more significant.
OK, here is a little memory test. What are these? I know many of you are way too young to have a clue what they are or what they were used for. 
Yes! They are S&H Green Stamps. So here I go dating myself again, but when I was a little girl, there were books and books and books of these things stashed everywhere in my house, just waiting for that exciting day when we could go exchange them for something wonderful! My Mom purposely shopped at the National Food Store and other retailers that gave S&H Green Stamps. With every purchase, they would receive stamps ~ the more they spent, the more stamps they’d receive. Mom and Dad were feeding a family of 7 growing kids, so they bought lots of food and got lots of green stamps. Mom would paste the stamps like stickers in the handy Green Stamp books, saving them until she had a large enough pile to redeem them for something she had her eye on at the S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center. Of course those days were long before the internet or “Marriott Points,” but the concept is the same. You got stamps (points) for your purchases, and then could exchange the stamps (points) for something of real value.
As I held my single sheet of “antique” S&H Green Stamps I thought about that “Redemption Center.” What an exciting place! It was like a huge department store that didn’t take money. Aisle upon wonderful aisle, stocked full of valuable things ~ everything from watches and jewelry to TV trays (remember those?) to household goods to furniture and more! Mom could exchange her worthless books filled with green stickers, for something she really wanted, something of much greater value than those silly stamps.
What a beautiful picture of what God has done for us. Redemption. The Great Exchange. We give God our worthless, sin-filled lives and He exchanges them for forgiveness, freedom and purpose. And if that were not enough, He also redeems those parts of our lives that we’d just as soon get rid of ~ the pain, the trials, the mistakes, the anger, the broken things ~ He exchanges all of that for something of far greater value. Yesterday at church I saw a beautiful example of this kind of redemption, as I watched a woman raising her twisted, arthritic hands to the Lord in worship. What a picture! The twisted, ugly, pain filled hands that are not even able to hold a pencil, now lifted to become a vessel of honor and praise to the God of the Universe! Redemption.
When I turn it over to Him, God takes my pain and transforms it into something useful to help others, a testimony to His faithfulness. When I am angry at my spouse and the negative thoughts and feelings are consuming my mind and heart ~ eating me up ~ I give them to God and He redeems them. He exchanges them for something with purpose and meaning, something of value ~ taking all that negative emotion and energy, and transforming it into motivation for change, motivation to do good, motivation to help others.
At the S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center, you could redeem your fist full of sticker books for something of far greater value. What a perfect picture of the real meaning of redemption. I can just picture God in His great Redemption Center in Heaven, with aisle after aisle, warehouse after warehouse filled with the good, valuable and awesome things He wants to give us in exchange for all the worthless things we’re grasping so tightly in our hands. Peace, purpose, freedom, friendship, hope, joy, and more await us on His shelves!
I’ll take that trade. I’ll exchange my “ashes for beauty.” (Isaiah 61:3) I’ll trade my ugly things ~ my anger, my pain, my illnesses, my emotional scars, or even my continued sin for what God wants to give me. I’ll say, “God, take it. Redeem it. Exchange my worst for Your best!” What about you? Will you take the hard things, the bad things, and the painful things in your life and bring them to God’s great redemption center? Go there – on purpose. Take all the worthless things you’re grasping in your hands and exchange them for God’s best. Redemption ~ from our sin for eternity and from what binds us each and every day. What a gift! What a great exchange!
