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“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened.” – Revelation 20:12
Bookkeeping has never been my forte. During my high school years, I tried taking an accounting class, but soon realized I was better suited to spelling and English than to numbers. Still today, I do not enjoy balancing my checkbook, and am relieved when everything comes out as it is supposed to. However, I have discovered that God is an excellent bookkeeper!
Even though I was reared in a Christian home, I did not choose to ask Jesus into my heart as a child. I did things that were wrong in the sight of God, and at the age of eight, I was already a thief. Although I was young, I knew better than to take things that did not belong to me.
On one occasion, I went to the corner grocery store with a girl who lived next door to us. She said, “Wait until Mr. Mulally turns his back, and then you can steal a plum.” The plums were in a box on the counter in front of us. Foolishly, I did what she suggested, and got away without being caught. This was an especially dumb idea because I did not even like plums!
After a number of years, I became a Christian and the Lord reminded me of the plum I had stolen. I lived clear across the United States by that time, but God’s Holy Spirit spoke to me and prompted me to write a letter to the store owner, and to send money to pay for what I had taken. God needed to reconcile His books!
Some may believe it is unnecessary to repay such a trivial theft, but if the Lord lays a restitution on our hearts, we better make things right! We do not want to have anything in our lives that might discredit our testimony to others, or worse yet, keep us out of Heaven. The cost of the plum was a small price to pay to have “a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16). And who knows what might result from our small act of obedience? Perhaps God used my actions to speak to that store owner about his own accounts that needed to be settled.
Even though the store owner did not know I had stolen anything from him, God did. I am glad I paid for that item, because now I know it will not show up in the debit column when I meet Jesus!
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