Did God’s Love of the World Cause Him Agonizing Pain?
It was the summer of 1997 when the call came at work that my son had been in a bad wreck and the ambulance was in route to the hospital. The dispatcher couldn’t tell me anything except that the car had rolled over many times and was totaled. They couldn’t tell me if Ron was ok; but, they said the ETA of the ambulance was about 20 minutes. After all, it was a rural area. As I quickly said a prayer for Ron, I called my supervisor to find someone to take over my patients and I made my way to the ER to wait. When he arrived, he was ok; except for a compression fracture of the thoracic spine. He was in so much pain that his body trembled, he was very pale and covered in a cold sweat. I urged him to let them give him something for pain; but, he refused. He said, “I deserve the pain—my fault, I took the curve too fast.” He had only been driving for a few weeks and had misjudged the curve on a dirt road. My heart bled for him. If I could take the pain from him, I would have gladly. If I could just bear the burden of his guilt, I would have. That was only one example; yet, I could tell you many more. I would gladly carry every pain, every heart break, and every burden for any one of my children; if only I could.
So, imagine this. If I, with this human heart that fails sometimes can love my children with so much love; how much more does God love His only begotten, perfectly righteous son? [bctt tweet=”What agony must God have felt as He watched His son be rejected, beaten, and hung on the cross.”] What depth of sorrow must have been His to watch Him suffer!! He could say, “Enough” at any second and hurl all of mankind into eternal hell where these selfish hearts deserve to go. Yet, He held His hand and turned away in silence as His son took on the sins of the whole world along with all their guilt. He did it out of love for this His creation—a creation who turned their back on Him. A bunch who chose to worship self instead of Him who had made them.
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