In John McCain’s book, Faith of My Fathers, the ordeals of our POW’s during the Viet Nam war are avidly set forth. Abuse and torture were unremitting, and the reliefs were slight.

Toward the close of the war certain amenities were finally granted, but the most prized possession of each prisoner became a coarse square of cotton rag that served as both washcloth and towel. One day in the fall of 1968, when McCain’s cherished washrag was hanging on the line to dry, the guards hauled him out of his cell to a punishment room for ten days of attitude adjustment. When he returned his washrag was no longer on the wire, and McCain was beside himself. When next he saw a rag hanging on the line he took it. He used it with joy, but his joy was suppressed by feelings of remorse over what he had done. Some months later he spied his old washrag hanging on the line (it had a distinctive hole in its center), and with a sigh of relief he retrieved it and hung the stolen rag in its place.

That evening Bob Craner tapped on his wall. Bob was furious that someone had stolen his washrag which he had found in the dirt and had spent a long time cleaning. Now he had no washrag. As he poured out his troubles McCain said nothing. He was guiltridden, and remorseful, but not brave enough to confess his crime. Finally at Christmas time, McCain confessed to Bob what he had done—yet the guilt remained.

Relief came on the first Christmas when as free men McCain sent Bob a carton of five hundred washrags as a Christmas present.

Repentance and restitution go hand in hand. Zacchaeus knew that. He said, "and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold" (Luke 19:8).