I haven't been good at getting these posted on Saturdays lately--even though Ashley has been amazing and has been faithful to her Saturdays, so please forgive me and enjoy a moment with Ashley--this week on Tuesday! :)
SOUP
About two weeks ago a chinese lady moved into our house. She's about 45 years old and is doing the Commission at IHOP, so she'll be living with us for three months. She's such a wise lady, and I've enjoyed her living at our house....except for one thing. She feels the need to cook for us every night. Now I know most of you are going, "aww that's so nice of her to cook for ya'll." That's what I thought at first too, but you try having soup every night and then see how nice you think it is. I've tried telling her I would make my own dinner, and I've even come home early before she came back to make my own dinner. Only to have her bring me a bowl of soup to eat with my dinner, and then when I didn't eat it she ran after me to make sure I ate the soup before I left again that night. In case you didn't know you're supposed to have at least one hot soup a day during the winter....I wasn't aware of this rule. I will admit that on some nights I have eaten some and the garbage disposal ate the rest, now don't be mad at me I have a very low tolerance for spicy food. I just can't handle it, so when it hits my mouth....I'm done. The Lord convicted me and reminded me that this lady is just trying to do what she thinks is best, and she's spending her own money to make me food. I don't know how rich or poor she is, but she's taking the money that she has and buying food to make us soup every night.
I've been thinking about this and God said to me, "It cost me too." I was thinking about this and it hit me. What was the cost? What was the cost for Him to send His son? We so often take Jesus coming to earth for granted and we look at it as something that had to be done. Yes it did have to be done for our salvation, but no God didn't have to do it. Isaiah 59:16 says, "so his own arm worked salvation for Him." That verse is appalling to me, His own arm. Not only did He allow His son to come to the earth, but He also killed him. God knew what was going to have to happen, and He knew that He was going to have to kill His own son. What did it cost Jesus to make himself a little bit lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9). For him to humble himself to come to earth and then die a lowly death on a cross.
The problem is we look at this as I look at that soup. At first we are so grateful that we're being given this soup. Then after awhile we go to church and they're preaching about the cross and we sigh and say....not soup again! We've forgotten the cost, we've forgotten the depth of what really happened. We've forgotten how important the cross is in our lives. We underestimate it's values, and sometimes we take some of it and throw the rest away. There's more I could say, but I'm going to leave it at this. I encourage each of you to take time this week and look at the cross, meditate on what it really means. Look at the cost. What was given up? If I tell you it won't pierce your heart as much as it would if you find it out for yourself. So here's a head start...you take it from here.
God Bless
Ashley