For the first time ever, my husband and I hired a tax accountant. Having sold both our house and my late mother’s — as well as being self- employed — I really hoped we didn’t owe money. Just as importantly, I wanted to avoid making a mistake that might later result in a letter from the IRS with a bill.

A couple of weeks later, we were blessed to find out that — like up to 80 percent of Americans — we were to receive a tidy tax return. But where to spend it? The leaky roof ? Investing in a second car? Helping our high school senior with college?

Following the advice of popular financial experts, we will most likely use the money to reduce debt.

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other,” says Romans 13: 8 ( ESV), “ for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

This verse has been looping through my mind for the past couple of weeks. You see, it isn’t just the loan on our family vehicle that we need to repay. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who have sacrificially shown God’s love to us — by helping provide for our family, by stepping into the gap left after my mother’s death, or by simply encouraging us.

But not only is this tax season. We are also in the fourth week of Lent, a time when many put aside earthly pleasures to focus on the debt we owe to Christ. You’ll never get a bill from God saying how much you owe, at least not in the mailbox. That’s because, unlike taxes, the debt we owe to Christ for dying on a cross to restore us to God isn’t one of duty but of devotion.

If I am indebted to those who have helped my family in material ways, how much more am I indebted to the One who has helped me in eternal ways? And yet, the repayment God asks is simply to love. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” Jesus says in John 14: 15. Later, in verse 21 of the same passage, he promises, “And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

The only way to resolve our debt to God is to love and obey him. The two go hand-in-hand. In response, he promises to reveal himself to us and flood our lives with his love. This would be a little like the IRS saying, “You owe $50. Once paid, you are entitled to a lifetime annual return of $50 million.” Far more than we could ever use up.

By loving and obeying Christ, we not only fulfill God’s law, we open ourselves to an everlasting return of God’s blessings. All this is available to us for the mere cost of our devotion. No tax accountant required.

Meadow Rue Merrill writes for children and adults from a little house in the big woods of midcoast Maine. Her memoir,

Redeeming Ruth: Everything

Life Takes, Love Restores, releases May 1. Connect at www.meadowrue.com