Choose Life
Baby Girl,
You are trying to imagine the heart of a Father who would send His only Son to die for the world; but you’re asking the wrong question. You will never fully understand the sacrifice We made on the cross with your natural mind, so close your eyes and listen with your spirit - not your soul.
When I sent Jesus to the world, I began with the end in mind.
As the story of the cross unfolded in your understanding, you saw the baby, imagined the toddler, considered the family He would grow up in, His job as a carpenter, what it must have been like to choose the disciples, to be betrayed, rejected, and having done nothing wrong, to be killed in the most intensely brutal way the human body could endure. For you, the story began at the beginning. If I approached this mission with a carnal mind, the injustice of it all would have caused Me to pause and rethink; but I didn’t. I began with the end in mind.
Imagine holding your daughter as a baby all those years ago and having a vision of her future. As an adult, you see her in a dark alley. You are aware that she is terrified of the dark and yet you see her being led deeper and deeper into the darkness.
As your eyes adjust, you become acutely aware of a presence that seeks to torture her with the desire to continue the torment until she can withstand it no longer and she will perish in utter darkness - alone and afraid.
You would do anything you could to spare her the horrific future you know is down the path she is walking on. There is a solution but it will literally cost you EVERYTHING.
You quickly set about liquidating your assets. You sell your home, your car, liquidate your retirement, cash out your stocks, and having sold and given all you own, you have a cashier’s check made out and run into the darkness completely winded as you call out to her, “Baby Girl, stop! I’ve paid your way out of the darkness! Please, stop. Accept this gift and come home!”
She turns to you and, taking the check with complete indifference, she looks you in the eyes while tearing the check into tiny pieces. You watch those bits of paper fall like confetti as she turns and slowly walks with great intention back into the darkness. You fall to your knees in sorrow as you watch your baby girl chooses death after you gave everything to offer her life.
No matter how I attempt to paint this picture and explain why I had to send My Son, it will not make sense to your finite mind. All that I can say is that I gave My Son’s life beginning with hers in mind, and My plea to her and to all of My creation is, “I set before you life and death; choose life.”
Back to bed.
LOVE,
Daddy
John 3:16-17
