You shall not steal
“Where did you get that?” my father asked. He had noticed a small toy in my hand, just as we were leaving the toy shop. I replied, truthfully, that I had found it on the floor. He informed me that it was still stealing, taking something that didn’t belong to me. He duly marched me back into the shop to hand it back! It’s a lesson I will never forget, even though it was many, many years ago when I was a young boy.
Even though we may turn a blind eye to some forms of stealing, I don’t think I know anyone who believes that stealing itself is okay, that it doesn’t matter what you take from whom. Now, consider this: if God is our creator, then we belong to him and he ‘owns’ us. That’s how it goes with something you make: it is yours (and you can do with it what you wish). Do you see what follows? If, then, we take ourselves away from God, rather than giving ourselves to him, it is a form of stealing. We are stealing our selves from their rightful owner, God.
Is it any wonder, then, that people are so hostile to the idea of a creator? How inconvenient to be owned by anyone, and so be accountable to them, even if that person is God himself. Much better to deny the possibility of creation altogether! How wonderful, then, to have a Saviour who gave himself away so freely and so extravagantly that we may once again discover the joy of our true ownership.