The Aldi grocery cart system offers a very interesting analogy for the human journey toward communion. The carts are linked together by chains that can only be released when the shopper inserts a quarter into the slot which is mounted to the handlebar. That same quarter, which stays in the slot for the duration of one’s shopping, is returned to the shopper when the cart is escorted back to the other carts and the chain is reinserted. This very utilitarian arrangement, which is meant to offer patrons an incentive for maintaining order in the parking lot, is transformed when a single person chooses to return their cart without taking their quarter back. The next person goes to retrieve a cart but doesn’t have to go through the trouble of finding a quarter, and when that person is done shopping, she or he can just leave the cart so that someone else might experience this same gift. A single quarter, in this way, can service dozens of shoppers in a given day! And so it goes with the Christian life: Jesus breaks the cycle of worldly transactionality by paying the price for us. Ours is to simply pass along what has been given to us as a pure grace (1 Cor 4:7). Such stewardship produces humility and gratitude which links us together in the blessed chain of our salvation. Let’s spend some time this week contemplating this spiritual truth and find creative ways to pay it forward. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
Thanks for this.
It was simple and affirming of the way we have already been saved.
Yes, amen!