THOUGHTS

April 10, 2020

A reprint from 

April 13, 2020

GRACE

Recently Gracie said, "Mom you know how people say you can't judge a book by its cover, and how looks can be deceiving?  I'm pretty on the outside, but naughty on the inside."

Pretty smart for a first-grader for self-perception.  Her mother graciously responded, "You are great on the inside as well as on the outside."

"But I'm still pretty on the outside, right?"

Remember that feeling of naughty on the inside?  Yep.  Jesus said, and I can't quote it enough, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chick under her wings, and you were unwilling." (Matthew 23:37)  How much do we as parents wish we could protect them not only from the evils of the world out there, but from the rebellion in their hearts."

Jesus went to extremes in order to spread His wings over us as His arms outstretched on a cross.  Even when we are tempted to say, "The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me," we are reminded in Isaiah 49:14-16, "God says, 'Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?'  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.  Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands."  Jesus did just that when the nails pierced His hands and He cried out, "Father, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"  

He took on our worst fears upon Himself, abandonment, to bring us to the Father, the Father who had to turn His back on His suffering Son just so He would never leave us nor forsake us.  He did it when we were still naughty on the inside.  Now that's love.  That's grace.