Grace at the Apple Store

I dropped my ipad a few days ago walking in a parking lot of a conference center.  It flipped out of my hand, which happens sometimes if you don't strap up the leather case.  I didn't think much of it, because my case protects the ipad but when I picked it up, low and behold, the glass was fractured.  It looked as if it had been shot with a bb, cracks extending all around it, all the way to the edge.  Apparently, it landed face down on the parking lot where there happened to be a pebble which impacted the glass.
Bummer.  I love my ipad.  It is my office and constant companion and now I had to either get a new one or get this one fixed.  How long would that take?
I am fortunate to have a friend who manages an Apple store in San Antonio and I emailed and told him about my mishap.  He said come on in and they'd take a look at it.
Well, much to my surprise, Apple just replaced my ipad with a new one.  Never would I expect this.  I read that some people who had their ipad 2 glass cracked had received new ones. But mine was an ipad 1 which I had owned for 9 months and I did not have the extended warranty.  Surprisingly, very few questions were asked.
As I drove away from the store, I felt this incredible sense of gratitude and blessing.  And it dawned on me that this certainly was grace and what I should be feeling every day I wake up because I have experienced so much greater grace from God.
Did I deserve a new ipad?  Certainly not.  It was my fault, brought on by my negligence.  I didn't even receive a sharp rebuke from the Apple rep.  He had me sign a couple of papers turn my old ipad over to him and brought out a new one. All I needed to do was accept it.  I guess I could have refused it and kept the old one but who wouldn't want a brand new one?
When God offers us a new life, we too have the option of keeping the old life, the one that is fractured, broken down by sin or trade it in for new life.  But God says I want the old life and I'll replace it with a new one, no questions asked.  No stern rebuke, no tricky deals or demand for promises to take much better care of the new one.
The question you may be asking, "would you have gotten a free ipad if you hadn't have known the manager? Did he pull some strings for you?" I don't know the answer to that.  It certainly didn't hurt.  My manager friend never indicated that this was a "special favor" from him.  When I thanked him he just responded, "my pleasure".
But when I think of it, our favor, the grace we receive from God comes only because we have someone pulling the strings for us.  Jesus Christ is our intercessor and it is because we know him, personally, that we are extended God's grace.  Thankfully Jesus paid the price so we could receive forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Without knowing Him, there is no grace. 
Maybe there is more to the meaning of the Apple logo and branding than I thought.  Then again, probably not.