5-31-21

I have never seen a check-out line as long as the one I and about twenty-five other Walmart shoppers were standing in. Only two “staffed” checking lanes were open, and apparently, it seemed to all of us that the self-check option was going to be the fastest way out of the store.

As the minutes ticked by, each of us in the long line took tiny shuffle steps forward toward the goal of self-checking our purchases. I was increasingly aware of the fact that I had dutifully downed my morning quota of water. And with each shuffling step forward, I was mentally calculating how much longer I could hold it. Leaving the line now to pee would put me back at the end of a line that was even longer than when I started.

Finally, I was #2 in position. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. A little old lady (from this point on referred to as LOL) whizzed up in her electric scooter. She breezed past all of us on our left and positioned herself at the front of the line. An (un)friendly Walmart employee greeted the LOL by saying that the line started waaay back there, as she gestured with her extended arm toward the other side of the store.

The elderly shopper whose scooter-basket was nearly overflowing with items started talking loudly to the store employee. “Why are there only TWO lanes open for checking?” (and a little louder) “Can’t they open some more lanes?” (practically shouting) “Where ARE all of the employees?!”
I was doing my best to stare straight ahead past the escalating scene, mindful that I was within minutes of making it to the bathroom.

And then the lady right behind me said decisively over my shoulder, “Ma’am, I’ll take your place, and you can have mine.” And without any further ado, this gracious person spun her shopping cart around and headed to the back of the line. The LOL put her scooter in reverse and pulled in behind me.

I couldn’t stop thinking of the exchange that I had just witnessed and how it pointed my heart to an immeasurably greater exchange—the exchange where Jesus took our place, and we get His place.
Substitutionary atonement- Jesus suffering and dying as a substitute on behalf of fallen humanity.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says”, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I get His place, and He took mine.

The LOL with her scooter ended up right next to my self-checking station, and I couldn’t help but overhear her continued conversation with the employee helping her unload her basket. Even though she had leaped ahead of twenty-three other shoppers, even though she was in the process of being served by an employee, she had never stopped complaining about the lack of customer service.
I had also noted that she never said thank you to the woman who gave up her spot and went all the way to the back of the line.
Complaining. Ungrateful. Not a word of thanks on the lady’s lips.

Every day we live at the front of the line when we deserve to be at the end. The back of the pack.
Every day our debt has been fully paid by Jesus, and we stand at the front of the line before Holy God.
Jesus mercifully ushers us to the front of the line, and yet, I can be just like that LOL, complaining, crotchety, ungrateful.

I find myself needing a shopping cart full of mercy and grace as I see on display at the self-check aisle of Walmart, the state of what my own heart can be like. Ponder with me, because of Jesus, our place at the front of the line.
And let’s keep our eyes open for gospel truths and theology lessons at the grocery store 🙂