Restitution

One of our first weeks here I would always drive the truck home after finishing my work at noon.  I always drove forward across the grass.  One day I was thinking about that and decided I should back out of my spot.  I'm not quite used to driving the truck as our car was much smaller.  I got in the truck and put the windows down because it was so blazing hot in there.  I backed out of my spot and heard something crunch.  I pulled forward and saw a van with this dent in the tailgate.

I was sick as I knew I did the damage.  I didn't feel my bumper hit the van but I did hear it so I knew it was my fault.  I went to the office and asked Sister Corder whose vehicle it was and she told me it was the Christensens.  Afterward my husband asked me why I didn't use the backup camera.  We have a backup camera?

I waited for Sister Christensen to come and she didn't for some time.  She was busy practicing backing the van with the trailer.  How's that for irony?  When I saw her coming, I went and told her what I did.  She laughed and told me about one of the FM employees who had damaged their van over the winter because he was sliding on the ice with his vehicle.

Each day after I went to work and cringed at the damage I had caused.  I thought about how it is like sin.  The damage is there and it needs to be taken care of.  Repentance is the key but sometimes restitution needs to be made.  We got an estimate before they left for home and then sent another one from their home.  It was $200 cheaper.

I wrote out the check rather than send it to insurance and pay for it over and over and over.  I was never so happy to write out a check.  I sent it off and knew that now my "sin" was truly forgiven.  Once their lift gate is replaced, no one will ever see the damage I caused. 

The whole thing was a very visual way to think about the Savior's atonement for our sins.  He doesn't just fix what's wrong, he replaces it with new.  It was an expensive lesson but it made a lasting impression I shall never forget.