Sacrifice

Oh goodness it has been rough lately! My niece and nephew, who live in my home, have begun the process of returning to my brothers and my heart feels like it is breaking into a million shards of glass. Some days it is literally all I can do to drag myself out of bed and face the day. Today is one of those days. The kids have their first overnight with my brother, which is the first time they have ever been away from me for a night. To make matters worse, I am not convinced that they will be safe or well cared for while they are gone. My brother's track record is not so great. I had to leave for work today after peeling my niece off of me and telling her it was going to be okay. As I wiped her tears (and my own)and kissed her goodbye, it took every ounce of self control I had not to grab her and run.

With all of this going on, God and I have had quite a few conversations. Well in the mist of my latest fit, God reminded me that He has been where I stand. In fact, He had to send his son, Jesus, away from home too. He had to send him to a cruel, unsafe place. A place where He knew that his son would not be well taken care of. He had to hug and kiss Him goodbye and then go to work. I bet He wanted to grab Him and run the other way.

Instead, God sent his son to live amongst imperfect people. And not just to live amongst them, but to die a cruel and painful death FOR them. This Easter season, like never before, I understand the depth of that sacrifice, how hard it must have been for God to knowingly let go of Jesus.

My heart is breaking, but how much more did God's heart break? But in the well known words of John 3:16, "God so loved the world" (that is you and me, that is my niece and nephew....that is even my brother), "that He gave his only son" (an amazing sacrifice) "that who ever believes in him (Jesus) will have everlasting life." So God endured this heartbreaking pain so that you and I could live forever in Heaven with Him. This Easter season, don't miss that truth of that, don't let Jesus death be for nothing.