Sacrifice

This morning Cole had to take child #2 to the urgent care clinic. He woke up with a tummy that felt hard and was tender to the touch. As a mama, I don't wait or mess around with abdominal pain. It's not something that I wait out or ignore. My "what if's" in my brain kick in to high gear, so off to the clinic they went this morning. As of right now, it looks like it is just some bad constipation. So a copy and some suppositories later, here we are sitting on the couch waiting for the meds to kick in and help out boy go, if you know what I mean. 

Every time my kids are sick, I have to work hard to reel in my worse case scenario imagination. My imagination is both a blessing and a curse. So right now as I sit here and watch my little guy moan in pain, I want so badly for it to stop, minor illness though it is. I won't so badly to take it all away. I would take this pain on for him if I could. And that gets me thinking about Jesus. 

Being a parent gives you such a different perspective on the Lord. When your child throws a tantrum, you see your own selfishness and depravity as you think of the many times you have thrown your own spiritual tantrum because God didn't answer your prayers the way you wanted or in your timing. You are reminded of your inability to keep all of God's statues when you see your child make the same bad choice again and again; you realize that you do the same thing with the Lord with your own son patterns. And today I see how much love that Christ had for us as he took on the pain and suffering of our sin on the cross. How amazing! He took on that burden for us! He took on the pain of my sin and died on a cross so I don't have to live a life separated from a holy God. I am now made right with the Lord because of Christ's willingness to take on sin and pain and death for me. So as I sit hear today holding my boy, i  going to let the truth of the gospel wash over me. I am going to let this minor suffering today remind me of the enormous love my Savior has for me, that he took on my sin to set me free. I pray today it will remind me of the weight of my sin and help me love those around me more like Christ does. What about you? What things do you see in your own life that are types and shadows of the gospel? Let them point us to Christ and transform our lives today!