No Cover Charge

I always talk about my brother Lee.  Perhaps that is because we literally "grew up together."  We were partners in crime, side kicks and tied at the hip.  Thirteen months apart and he was the best protector so we are very close.

Today however, I was reminded of a story that involved my sister Cynthia.  We lived in a neighborhood off  Homestead Rd.  Our street was booming.  It was for all intents and purposes our own.  Homestead seperated it from the other streets in our neighborhood and no kids dared cross Homestead.

We lived at the entrance to our street and being a dead-end, it had one way in and one way out.  The entire street probably had between twenty five to thirty homes.  Alot of the kids gathered at our two bedroom house because we had a double lot and that was plenty of room to race, play hide and seek, build things, etc.  It was also surrounded by a cyclone fence, an added luxury that made other parents feel safe from "street playing."

I remember one day when my father purchased a simple above ground pool.  It was one with an aluminum wall and plastic liner but now we were the hit of the neighborhood.  We had more kids at our house than at any day care.  These were hot summers and the kids loved it.  We were the products of "it takes a village" at work.  Parents were comfortable and would leave their kids for hours because they knew where they were and that there was parental supervision. 

Apparently, the "crowd" got too big for my sister Cynthia.  She demonstrated her entreprenur skills early.  This was discovered when my mother  found a child sitting apart from the group, crying.  My mother asked the child why they were not swimming with the rest of the kids.  The child looked at my mom and said "I don't have a quarter to swim."  Of course my mom investigated further and found my sister standing at the pool "charging a quarter" to enter the pool.

My mom was not happy to say the least.  My sister had to return the quarters and was "confined" to her room for the rest of the day.  I believe my sister learned her lesson and did not charge for entry to the pool again.

I am so glad that we do not have to pay an entry fee into God's Kingdom.  We don't have to be sin-less, Jesus was that; we don't have to offer sacrifice, Jesus did that; and we don't have to pay the price, Jesus did that when he went to the cross. 

What an awesome feeling to be a part of something without having to pay for it.  You don't have to work for it, you don't have to pay a fee, you just have to accept this wonderful gift of love for you.  Accept, Believe and Confess.  Christ paid the price when he died on the cross and covered our sins....there is no cover charge.   

Yet to all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.  John 1:12