Easter

For God so Loved the World.

If I had a penny for every time I'v heard that! Its probably one of, if not the, most commenly quotated parts of scripture - especially at easter time. I'v heard it so much and so regularily that I think somewhere along the way I became a bit desensitised to the weight of its meaning.

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

how amazing is that love. When I was younger I always thought that it wouldn't be that much of a big deal - I would gladly die for poeple I didn't even know - but now that I'm older I can see that my apparent willingness to die for others comes with the knowledge that as soon as I'm dead I'll be in heaven - I'll be face to face with my Lord, and nothing else will ever matter again. So even the good that I would try to do, the sacrifice I would try to make, would be tained by sin. If I couldn't go to heaven, if I couldn't be with God after death, I wouldn't die for them. We are all desperatly wicked and I am no exception. In the back of my mind would always be the thought that "Ha! Now I get to live in perfection with God!"

But for Jesus there was no such greed. He had to face the seperation from not only his God, but in a way himself, all perfection and love, and his father - whom he had such love for, such perfect love, the thought of seperation from him caused, not only great, great mental but, physical angish! I mean he sweated blood! And yet he did it. He may as well have cast himself into hell for how he and his father suffered. He did it for us. For me and for you. 

I was listening to a song on the radio a little while ago, that said "she's the reason Jesus came." I commented to my dad that I thought it was a bit self-important to say so but he turned to me and said "Do you think that if it were only one person, if it were only her, Jesus wouldn't die to save her?"

I believe he would.

Steph xx