Being a parent is messy. From mealtimes with toddlers to moral development with young adults, “tidy” never describes child rearing. Moms and Dads, since time immemorial, direct their children with quiet or firm commands appropriate to the child’s maturity. Sometimes Dad might float a gentle reminder like, “Brush your teeth before bed.” Other times Mom’s eyes transform into a laser death stare as if shouting, “Don’t you dare!” At heart, good commands presuppose that the child has the tools and ability to do or stop doing any given behavior. Can you imagine a mother demanding her four-month-old baby change his own diaper? Or what would you think of a father who reprimanded his eight-year-old for not paying the electric bill? Parental frustration usually happens not just because our children do the wrong thing, but because we know they have the ability to act otherwise.
Being a parent means being willing to wade through the mess. Healthy moms and dads rarely hesitate when called to sacrifice for their child for two reasons. First, each child is the direct result of the parent’s own life and love. As the immediate fruit of the parent, it is no surprise that children resemble them, in their physical appearance, body language, general behavior patterns, and habits. In fact, this reality is the basis for an old Irish proverb invoked under the breath in the presence of a misbehaving child, “Tisn’t the neighbors he’s taken after.” Second, a child’s life depends on the ongoing sacrifice of the parents. Without the sacrificial giving of self by the parents for the child, physical survival would be difficult and moral survival almost impossible.
So too, God the Father has children, made in His image. And, like all well-loved children, they desire to imitate their dad. Not only is imitation possible, but because they are children, it is expected. Like a father, God the Light issues commands regarding how His children ought to represent Him because they are His “fruit” (Ephesians 5:8-9). The most important command He has given is for His much-loved children to reflect His good, righteous, and true nature, and to “walk in love” (Ephesians 5:2).
We know what this love looks like because of how Christ modeled it for us: complete sacrifice of one’s self for another. This love, displayed by Jesus on the cross, when spread to us changes our status from enemies of God to children (Romans 5:10). This Love is Light. This love is the means by which God increases His family’s size. And our purpose is to resemble our Father. The cross is the very same springtime scent that leads us to the garden of God’s Kingdom. It is what Paul means when he says in Ephesians 5:2, “…walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Jesus’ offering is a “fragrant aroma” to God because Christ satisfied both His holiness and His commitment to restore His children.
If not for Christ’s complete submission to the Father and sacrifice for us at the cross, we would be dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1): without resources, voice, or legal standing before a holy and righteous God, Who in His perfect justice required payment for our sin. Yet in His perfect mercy, God provided us the ultimate escape from an eternal death. The cross is God’s demonstration of His absolute purity and His unplumbed grace. The cross became at the same moment, complete justice in payment for sin and complete mercy extended to the sinner for all time. The cross is a total offering of one for the benefit of another. The cross is the acorn spent for the oak’s upward call, the coal consumed to stave off winter’s cold, and the cocoon broken to free the butterfly.
This once hidden truth of eternal life is revealed, and you and I are called to live in it. The light of the gospel mystery shows that only in a voluntary death of total sacrifice for and absolute deference to another, can life be found. While the cross is the greatest act of violence the world will ever see, it is also the greatest fount of blessing the world will ever know-a complete act of love by our eternal Father.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21. The gospel teaches that we need not fear death in whatever form it may take, knowing that from it will spring new life. So a husband willingly expends his all for his wife, who in turn dares defer to her husband, a child obeys his parents, an employee labors for his manager, and a boss renders back to workers, as if to Jesus to whom is owed everything. And to the fatherless orphan and husbandless widow who have not known our great Comfort, we walk as children of the Light and give our very selves. A woman facing the apparently impossible task of raising a child alone is America’s widow. A preborn boy or girl without voice or legal standing is America’s orphan. “For this reason [He] says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you'” (Ephesians 5:14). Let God’s children rise, take up our cross daily and follow Him.
CompassCare’s 2016 goal is to reach 25% of all women at-risk for abortion in our community. To accomplish this, CompassCare needs to raise $218,000 at the Walk for Life. Because of the work of CompassCare and your passion to support it, abortions are at their lowest level since it was legalized. Together, we are erasing the need for abortion.
This once hidden truth of eternal life is revealed, and you and I are called to live in it. The light of the gospel mystery shows that only in a voluntary death of total sacrifice for and absolute deference to another, can life be found. While the cross is the greatest act of violence the world will ever see, it is also the greatest fount of blessing the world will ever know-a complete act of love by our eternal Father.
Join CompassCare hundreds of like-minded Christians at the 2016 Walk for Life as a pledge-raising Walker. Sign-up today at walk.compasscare.info! Together, we can “walk in love” as Christ commands us. Let’s Walk for Life!