Hi SEM'ers, Nolene here with my very first post.
I am truly so excited to be here and to share this story with you, as I really felt such a special touch from God when He revealed this to me and I hope to be able to touch somebody else's life with it.
When my daughter was born she always seemed to have trouble breathing. While we were still in hospital after her birth the paediatrician said that her nasal passages were very narrow but that she was breathing fine. This didn’t stop my husband and I from rushing her to the ER on our first night at home because we thought she wasn’t breathing properly (paranoid first time parents that we were). The inexperienced ER doctor prescribed antibiotics and a nasal spray. (My daughter is 8 now and suffers from asthma, which we keep under control with a preventative cortisone asthma pump – she hasn’t had an attack in over 3 years).
Then came the colic. After every feed my poor baby would suffer for hours to get rid of winds and cramps.
It used to upset me so much, my poor baby being in so much pain or constantly having a blocked nose. I used to think, “why can’t I just take it away from you? Why can’t I rather deal with it? I would know exactly what to do. I can deal with cramps; I can get rid of a blocked nose.”
Then one day it hit me! That is EXACTLY how Jesus feels about us. That is EXACTLY why He became man and came to earth – to deal with our sorrows and pain, to take away our sin. He knew that we were too immature/ignorant/of little faith to deal with all these things but He, on the other hand, knew exactly how to get rid of it. And, most of all, He couldn’t bear to see us suffer for all eternity instead of spending it with Him. And so He came and, out of indescribable, unconditional love for His children, took our sins (the cause of all our pain, sorrow, shame and everything else that troubles us) upon Himself and hung it on the cross.
The day I received this revelation, I finally understood Christ’s love for me. Looking into my baby’s eyes and trying to imagine her pain and discomfort, wishing I could set her free from it, I understood how Jesus feels about us. And I wept with joy… and sorrow for not always returning His love 100%... and repentance… but mostly joy.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Today, let us thank Jesus for His unconditional love and strive to return His love in everything we do.
We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Nolene