I read a story some time ago about an aspiring young golfer who spent hours in his backyard practicing his golf swing. He wasn’t allowed to use a real golf ball close to the house, only a plastic, practice ball.

One day, when he thought both his parents were gone, he longed to hear the sweet click of a club head meeting a real golf ball. So he went outside, teed one up, took a mighty swing, and accidentally hit the ball through his parents’ bedroom window.

I’ll let him tell the rest of the story: “I heard the glass shatter, and then I heard my mother cry out. I ran into the house and up the stairs to her bedroom. She was standing there in front of the broken window and she was bleeding. I started to cry and I couldn’t stop. All I could say was ‘Mom, what have I done! What have I done! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!’ Her response was to hug me and say, ‘It’s all right; everything’s going to be all right.’ After that I never wanted to take a real golf ball into the backyard.”

When we think about our Lord suffering for us on the cross, we want to live “for Him who died for [us] and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). After we’ve heard His words of forgiveness, there are things we just never want to do again—in the backyard, or in any other place.  —DHR