[320 words]
The line starts to form around 4:30 in the morning.
The goal of the people in line is to buy up the stock of doughnuts at Donut City, a small, family-owned shop in Seal Beach, California. By 7:30 the doughnuts have all been purchased.
The motivation of the buyouts: to allow the shop owner, John Chhan, to be able to leave work and be with his ailing wife, Stella, who recently suffered an aneurysm.
The Chhans opened the shop over 30 years ago and have had a steady stream of regular and loyal customers throughout the decades. John and Stella have worked side by side the entire time. She would make the doughnuts, and he would sell them.
When Stella became sick, John refused to allow his customers to set up any crowdfunding sites to help with medical expenses. That’s when the patrons came up with the buyout plan.
Out of love for the Chhans, people regularly pay the price so a husband and wife can be together as much as possible.
People without Christ as their Savior are deathly ill (Romans 5:12; 6:23). God wants badly for those people not to die, but to be with Him for eternity (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9).
So that mankind would have the opportunity to spend eternity with God, a buyout had to take place, and Jesus was the price for that buyout (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Sin had to be paid for in order to be removed from those willing to accept God’s offer.
Colossians 1:13 states that God has transferred us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son. According to verse 14, the payment for that transfer was God’s Son, Himself.
The motivation for the buyout: to allow humankind to be with God for eternity. The price has been paid out of love for God’s children.
Troy Albers
Graeber Road church of Christ
Rosenberg, TX