Sacrifice
By
Tracy Smith
“For
God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John
3:16 (NIV)
His only Son.
Think about that for a minute. Growing up attending church, I took for granted
that Jesus came to earth as a baby, grew up, had a ministry, and died for our
sins. I knew it was an awesome thing for the God of the Universe to allow
Himself to live life here on earth and to die for our sins. I think that
because I had heard this since I was a small child, I accepted it and believed
it, but never really processed what it all meant to God the Father and to God
the Son.
My focus was always on
what Jesus did for us. There is nothing wrong with focusing on that, as His
sacrifice is what allows me to have communion with God again, but I never
really thought long and hard about how what He did impacted His Father.
Then I became a mother
- - of sons. Suddenly, it was much more real. As Easter rolled around one year
when my oldest was a toddler, it suddenly hit me what God the Father had
sacrificed in His love for us. I sat there looking at my son sleep and
thought of all the people in my life whom I love and came to this conclusion:
While my love for them is strong, I would never (strong word, but
true) willingly sacrifice my son for them. Not only that, but
can you imagine telling your son that you would be sacrificing him for a bunch
of sinners?
Thinking through that
brought new meaning to Easter for me. Even though it’s still cold outside, the
season of Easter will soon be upon us. Taking time to reflect before the
holiday has caused me to really think about what Easter means…not only to my
faith, but to my God.
GOING DEEPER
1. Will you commit to
spending some time this week focusing on the incredible sacrifice that was made
by God, just for you?
2. As we begin to
approach the Easter season, with whom will you share the real meaning of John
3:16?
FURTHER READING
Along
with being a wife and mother to two boys, Tracy is an administrative assistant
at Oakwood, serves on the Women’s Ministry Special Events Team and leads a
great group of Junior High girls.
