Last night we drove to Springfield and picked our car up from the Dealership! The parts and labor were completely covered under warranty. God sure was generous on this one! We arrived at the dealership and were greeted by three employees from their service department who knew our story, and were still happy to see us. They sat us down and went through the work order line by line, and even called the mechanic who did the work so we could talk with him about what was done.
Originally we didn’t think they would do anything for us since our car missed the qualifications for the extended warranty. When we heard they would cover it, we thought they would only install an overhauled engine with as few parts replaced as possible, but thankfully they decided to do a lot more for us.
The mechanic who worked on it has been working for Toyota/Lexus for over 18 years and did a meticulous job. From what we could see from the invoice they installed over $1,000 of extra parts that were not necessarily part of the warranty claim. They flushed and refilled the cooling system, transmission, power steering system, and recharged the air conditioner. They replaced several smog components, including a catalytic converter. Not only did they do that, but they gave us a brand new short block engine, and replaced all the components in the valve system with new parts, and performed Lexus service bulletins while they were at it. In basic terms: everything under the hood was brought back to new condition or replaced with new parts if it couldn’t be restored.
All this work created a bill that was several pages long and over $8,000.00. Once we were brought up to speed on all the details of the work they performed, they pulled our freshly washed and vacuumed car into the carport, handed us the key, and said, “You owe us nothing, we’re paying for this one, enjoy!” We drove home with huge smiles on our faces and were speechless before a God who knows and demonstrates what an unconditional gift looks like.
Our smiles soon turned to brokenness as we were reminded of how we once stood condemned before God, with no hope or reason for Him to help us in our sinful rebellion against Him. He decided to take on the repairs of our relationship with Him even though we were born with a voided warranty. He proceeded to do the work that was necessary to restore us to “new condition.” He even went the extra mile and gave us His spirit as a seal and deposit guaranteeing that the work he began will be completed. This whole “package” of repairs God put together was handed to us, and it had pages and pages of debt listed on it. We couldn’t afford to pay for even one of the items. He handed it to us and said, “You owe me nothing, I’m paying for this one, enjoy!”
“All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms–all because we are one with Christ Jesus.”
“And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus. God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” –Ephesians 2.3-10
What idiots we would have been to refuse such a gift from Lexus, let alone the gift God has handed to us free of charge, with no strings attached. This was such a great reminder that God, who we trust with our eternity, is just as capable of coming through for us in this life.