Several years ago Tony Gore gave our daughter Kayla a dog. He said all you had to have to raise a dog was a heart. We had never had a dog so we believed him. “Sophie” was the most temperamental dog you have ever seen. When she would go to the groomer and they would cut her hair she KNEW she looked different and didn’t like it so she would come in the house and “hide” under the dining room table! It broke my heart to see her hide out like that so I would get down on my hands and knees by the table and just tell her over and over how pretty she was. Eventually she would respond to the sweet-talk and come out from underneath the table. Then there was the day we had Sophie spayed. I don’t think we had any idea how “big “an operation that is for a little dog. Sophie had a scar that stretched down her entire belly! Predictably she was “embarrassed.” I remember holding her in my arms and gently rubbing her scar telling her she was the most beautiful dog in the world. After while she got to feeling better but I noticed a strange thing; I would constantly find her sleeping on MY CLOTHES!! My suit coat, my pants, my shirt…if I left a piece of clothing laying around she would find it and wrap up in it and go to sleep. You’ll never convince me that she couldn’t remember when I held her in my arms and rubbed her scar and told her she was beautiful anyway. She never got over that feeling and wanted to re-live it over and over! Folks it’s Good Friday. The day when Jesus Christ looked at the ugliest part of US! He looked at the part WE are ashamed of and don’t want anyone to see. They might not like us if they saw THAT! Jesus looked at that and said “YOU are the most beautiful thing I ever created. I love you and whether you did this to yourself or somebody did it TO you…I think you’re so beautiful that I’m willing to die just to let you know I love you that much!” Easter is wonderful BUT it’s really just the icing on the cake!! Where the love of Christ was TRULY demonstrated was ON THE CROSS! That’s where LOVE embraced our “ugliness” and said I love you anyway…scars and all! We are backwards in our thinking. We look at the perceived “ugliness” of others as a reason to separate ourselves from them and identify them as less than us! Love identified the scars, warts…the differences and said “I didn’t come to condemn…you were already condemned. I came that you might have life…!” Listen to Love today …for in the person of Jesus… Good Friday was about the weakness in ALL of us… and the invitation to come…and be free.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 16:42:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015