A few years ago, a little bit before Easter, I was just about to leave (I don't remember where I was going) when I noticed a book on the bench in my front hall. It was a simple green paperback with the title Pâques c'est quoi? (What is Easter?) I assumed it was from a friend of mine and put it away for later reading.
I did actually read it later and found it very interesting. It talked about the ransom, which I had never understood. I had been told before that Jesus died for our sins, and that by doing so he saved us all, but I never understood what that meant. How did that work? My first source of information about this had been my grandmother, but her explanation didn't satisfy me. She only repeated what I had already heard. For her, it was a matter of faith and she accepted it. But I didn't understand it.
This little gem of a book explained the ransom in terms that I could understand. It explained how the Israelites sacrificed lambs, goats, pigeons (etc.) to God to absolve them of their sins. The sacrificial animal had to be perfect, strong and healthy. By sacrificing the animal, the sins were taken away. In a similar way, Jesus was a sacrificial lamb. He was a perfect man, without sin. What made his sacrifice even more special was that he was God's son and God sent him to Earth with this precise purpose, that he may be sacrificed and save humankind. Jesus gave himself willingly, knowing that this was his Father's will.
After having read Pâques c'est quoi? I wanted to thank my friend for having left me the book. That's when things got a little weird. He said he hadn't left it for me! (Even though he had visited either the day of or the day before I found it in my front hall.) I trust him and I know he didn't play a trick on me. He even said that if he had left me a book, he would have left a better one. He thought that this one was too simplistic. (I may have been miffed at that comment, but I didn't mind as long as I liked the book and it helped me understand the ransom better. Maybe a more complex book would have left me just as lost and confused as before.)
Still, the question remains: where did the book come from? My friend came up with a theory, but I'm not sure I buy it, so I don't know what to think.
This all happened the year of the big OC Transpo bus strike in Ottawa. That winter, I had a friend who lived across the river but worked here in Hull. I worked in Ottawa but the strike didn't affect me because I had a parking spot and took my car to work. In the evening, I would drive home and either pick my friend up at her office or she would take the Quebec bus to my house and wait there, then I would drive her home. I didn't want her to be waiting out in the cold, so I left the side door unlocked so she could let herself in. As it was winter and very cold, I usually left the door unlocked, not wanting her to wait outside. I didn't have anything of valuable in the house, nothing that might be stolen, so I was comfortable doing this.
The theory is that I must have left the front door unlocked when I walked the dog and that I wasn't home when someone came to the door. Perhaps the door opened a bit when they knocked and they entered and perhaps called out to see if anyone was home. When no one answered, my friend thinks the person left the book on the bench and went away. This doesn't make much sense to me because if I ever left a door unlocked, it was the side door, not the front one. But the book was in my front hall.
There will never be any way of knowing. Was it someone at the door? Did the book magically apparate from somewhere? Was there divine intervention? All I know is that I must have been meant to read this book, because it was perfect for helping me to understand. Any simpler, and it may have just repeated the same things I had heard before, like a children's Bible might. Any more complex, I may have still been left in the dark. It was perfect for me, and that's all that counts. :o)
