It finally bit the dust.  I hated to see it happen, but I did learn something from it, and for that I’m glad.  Sorry, Mom.  I say that because it was her car that finally broke down and needed an engine repair a good bit beyond what was sensible for a 17 year old car with a ton of miles on it.  So this week she had me put it up for sale.  I must say that I didn’t have much faith that it would sell, and I was already Google searching salvage businesses that could come pick it up if (or “when” in my mind) it didn’t find a buyer.  But I’m a good son; I dutifully went and picked up a “For Sale” sign, taped it in the window, and parked the car out by Columbus Road.  By five o’clock that afternoon it was gone.  Sold.  Cash in hand, way more than a salvage business would have given.  And yes, I fully disclosed the car’s problems (all of them) to the buyer.  As I drove home that night, I thought to myself, “I wouldn’t have bought that car.  I don’t really want to buy something that’s broken.”  “Broken.”  That’s the exact word that came to mind.  But then another word came to my mind.  “God.”  Who wants to buy something that’s broken?  God, that’s who.  And that’s just what He did.  We were sinners.  Broken beyond human repair.  But God paid the price “even when we were dead in sins.”  Through that precious blood of Christ He redeemed us, and now we belong to Him.  And we are whole!  Made alive!  Forgiven!  Accepted and adopted!  So, Mom, I’m sorry about your car; but it sure reminded me of a wonderful truth.  As we sang last Sunday, “I come broken to be mended; I come wounded to be healed.  I come desperate to be rescued; I come empty to be filled.  I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb, and I’m welcomed with open arms, praise God, just as I am.”