Redeemed

One of the formative memories of my childhood was pasting the “S & H Green Stamps” we got at the grocery store into little green booklets of twenty-four pages, fifty stamps to a page. I can still remember the awful taste! It was a great day when I got to start using a wet sponge to moisten the glue on the back of those things.

After we got enough stamps pasted into enough booklets, we would take them to a place called a “Green Stamp Redemption Center.” I remember being very confused by this term the first time I accompanied my parents to the “Redemption Center.” As a preacher’s kid, I had only heard the word “redemption” used in connection with what Jesus did for us. So, I had to have it explained.

Redemption, as the explanation went, comes from the word redeem, which, at its most basic, simply means to purchase or exchange. Thus, at the redemption center, we were exchanging all of these booklets of stamps for items we would otherwise have to purchase with cash.

Since then, I’ve learned more about this concept. I’ve learned that the word “redeem” itself derives from the little used and somewhat archaic term “deem,” which means to take account of something or to place a value on something.

The word might have been used like this in seventeenth Century England.

Mr. Smythe goes to the village market and sees a hen he wants. To the merchant, Mr. Browne, he says, “I deem that hen to fetch a price of one penny.”

Mr. Browne replies, “I deem her at three pence.”

“One pence and a half,” offers Mr. Smythe.

“Tuppence,” replies Mr. Browne.

“Sold,” says Mr. Smythe, and because both gentlemen repeatedly “re-deemed” the value of the hen, the bird is eventually redeemed, or purchased.

That’s exactly what the word portrays in its Christian meaning. Humanity has deemed itself being worth only the pursuit of pleasure and things. God the Father, Who indeed knows best, deemed us worth the price of His own Son’s death. By paying such a price for us, He literally re-deemed us: He placed His value upon us, not because of anything we had done or could do, but simply because He created us for eternal intimacy with Himself.

That is very good news. I am redeemed, or re-deemed, as it were: re-valued, purchased and held by a new Owner. I paid nothing for myself. Instead, I am the recipient of God’s re-deeming grace, unearned, undeserved, and undeservable.

A great portion of the Christian life involves simply learning how to make daily decisions on the basis of this marvelous truth: God has placed His value upon you and, by some inexplicable miracle of His love, deems it appropriate that His Son should have died for you. In contrast to the value the world and devil consider you to have, God re-deems you.

How do you deem yourself? Do you consider yourself as God does? Are you re-deemed?

A fascinating postscript:
The Sperry and Hutchinson ("S & H") company started offering stamps to retailers way back in 1896, still does something like this. Today it's called "Greenpoints," and is all accomplished online. For details, go to http://www.greenpoints.com/account/act_default.asp