Year ago when he was in America, John Newton used the following analogy of a man who inherited a large fortune – a million dollars (equivalent today to perhaps a billion pounds): ‘Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his carriage should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My carriage is broken! My carriage is broken!” – Question: Is our focus on the broken carriage, or is our hope in the glorious inheritance waiting for us?

Cited by John Piper in his article on ‘Adoption’ – www.desiringgod.org