If you think a golf ball could do some damage …

Golfers — like fishermen — are famous for their rather colorful stories. Like the “big one that got away,” golfers tell of the amazing shot that only a hole in one would best.

But of all the stories any golfer could tell, few could rival the tale of Mathieu Boya. Several newspapers around the world have investigated this story, and have verified it’s a true, yet remarkable event.

This bizarre story began in 1987. Boya was a teenage boy living in his homeland of Benin, a tiny West African nation of eight million people. Boya loved the game of golf. Unfortunately, in this small impoverished nation there were no golf courses. Due to this, Boya routinely went to the local airfield to practice his swing. There were five airfields in the nation at the time. Of these, only one was paved. The country had a small air force that consisted of only five Mirage fighter jets that frequently taxied up and down the runway. For the most part, the pilots were usually oblivious to the youth’s presence near the air base.

One morning, Boya went to the airfield to get in a little golf practice. Little did he know he was about to set into place a chain of ridiculous events that looked like a slapstick farce.

One of the five jets had begun to taxi down the runway when Boya teed off. The errant shot flew high into the air and struck a low flying sea gull knocking him unconscious. The stricken bird fell from the sky, landing in the open cockpit of the taxiing jet. When the gull landed in the lap of the pilot, the startled bird began to flap about wildly and peck at the pilot who was startled and quickly lost control of the jet. The bird flew out of the jet at the last moment just as the pilot crashed into the four other Mirage jets parked near the runway, damaging or destroying them all.

Boya was immediately arrested. Fortunately, no one was injured but damage from this errant golf ball was estimated at $40 million. There was no money in the nation’s treasury to pay for the damages and Boya was ordered to pay restitution. Sadly, the teen made only $275 per year. At this rate, it would take 145,454 years for the youth to pay his debt to society.

If you think of how impossible it would be for this teenage boy to repay the cost of a mini air force for his nation, just think of trying to pay the cost for your sin.

It’s impossible.

That’s why Jesus Christ offered His own life to pay your sin debt.

“He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds,” Titus 2:14.

Our sin has done more damage than any golf ball ever could, but Christ has paid the debt and is restoring the damage we’ve caused. Have you accepted the redemption He offers you?

Scotty