A few days ago my husband needed to visit the eye doctors for an exam. Since we knew ahead of time that he would be receiving dilating eye drops, (the ones that make your pupils enlarge to twice their size) I agreed to be his chauffeur.
After his appointment was over, he was ready to be driven back home, but instead suggested that we make a quick pit stop at the grocery store.
“Are you sure you want to walk around in a bright halogen-lit store? Won’t that hurt your eyes?” I asked with concern.
He turned to me wearing his disposable Ray Charles lookalike eyewear and said, “I should be fine.”
When we arrived at the store, he only wore the plastic pupil protection for about 30 seconds before taking them off. Even though his gigantic cartoon looking eyes were sensitive to light, he was still able to scan and locate the protein powder that we needed.
At the checkout counter, I was given the job of handing our few items to the cashier and making the payment. I’m not quite sure what prompted me to gasp when I saw the protein powder ring up for $50, (because I know it is expensive) but I blurted out loud in disbelief, “Fifty dollars?!?!”
My husband heard this and quickly said, “No, it should be around $45.”
The cashier just looked at us in confusion, so I quickly ran back to the aisle and snapped a picture of our item with the barcode . . . it was indeed stocked and priced at $44.99 dollars on their shelf. Then I ran back to the line full of people waiting on this price check and showed my proof to the cashier.
She called her manager, who then came over to apologize and correct the price. We said it was no problem, and then I swiped our credit card to finish the readjusted payment transaction.
Just after I completed the signature pad, my double-dilated-vision-impaired husband pointed to a sign on the counter. How he saw and read this in his temporary medical condition, I do not know? But the notice said:
“Think your item may be priced incorrectly? Please alert your cashier. If it is, and not in your favor, we’ll refund the full price and give you the item free. Our goal is 100% price accuracy.”
My husband and I looked at each other, and then we turned to the cashier to say, “Could we please see that manager again?”
We are still not sure why this store policy was not applied when the manager came to fix the original inaccuracy, but when we were escorted to the customer service counter, he politely honored the store guarantee.
Whoo-hoo!!! Fifty dollars worth of protein powder AND our money back;)
Guarantee—a formal promise assuring that certain conditions will be fulfilled
It’s nice that grocery stores have them, but did you know that God gives guarantees as well?
“And because of what Christ did, all you others too, who heard the Good News about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians.
His presence within us is God’s guarantee that he really will give us all that he promised; and the Spirit’s seal upon us means that God has already purchased us and that he guarantees to bring us to himself. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.” (Ephesians 1:13-14 TLB)
Believers receive the Holy Spirit as a deposit, an earthly foretaste/preview of our eternal inheritance with Christ.
Christians are marked as belonging to Jesus by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—stamped and sealed as God’s children.
The power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the fulfillment of the first installment of God’s promise, and a reminder of the remaining portion that is to come—eternal life in heaven.
The Holy Spirit here with us today is the GUARANTEE that we will receive everything that God has planned and pledged to us in the future.
God’s spiritual guarantees sure do beat free items at the grocery store!