This past weekend a friend of mine and I met up for some breakfast and catch-up time at Panera in Sunset Place. I put in enough quarters for half hour. After breakfast my friend and I returned to the car to put in 4 quarters which would be good for another hour and guarantee us plenty of time to walk around Sunset Place and chat. At the end of our breakfast date as I was approaching the car, low and behold was that bright orange ticket nicely tucked in behind my wipers. I was shocked. My initial reaction was, "This must be a mistake." I looked around, read the time on my ticket and thought, "Impossible!" You see at 10:05 am I put in four quarters (my friend is my witness) and the citation was issued at 10:14 am. It didn't take me long to realize that rather than put the quarters in the meter that corresponded to my parking space, I actually placed my coins in the wrong meter. Sure enough, when I looked at the car next to me, there was no ticket and exactly one minute to spare. I felt so silly and naturally just a tad bit upset with myself for making such a careless mistake!
Since then I've had time to laugh about it and more importantly, reflect. Basically all I can say is that I am grateful that Christ got the "ticket" he didn't deserve for me. And that ticket cost him more than a mere $18, it cost him His life. Thank you, Lord for what you did on the cross!
