Father Email

My sister and brother-in-law, Suzanna and Othniel, live in Tacoma, WA, and had their first child, Ariel, last September. A few days ago, Suzanna wrote this and sent it out to the family along with a picture of little Ariel:

We can’t get over the delight of parenting the little pumpkin pictured in the email. If anyone were to try to harm our innocent little girl in any way, it would take an army to keep us away from intervening immediately and wrathfully. Most of us have heard the words, “God loves you,” and “Jesus died for you.” But have you ever thought about Fatherhood? Have you ever thought what it would cost a Parent to reject His child upon seeing him or her in the throes of the worst possible pain? What about that moment when the Father saw Jesus the Innocent hanging in anguish from a tree, and did not intervene to save Him? Have you ever realized that the Father let the wrath you and I deserved fall on Jesus as He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The Bible says that Jesus bore our shame on the cross, and God had to turn away in that moment because His holiness could not bear to look upon it. Spend a couple minutes researching child sex trafficking or the Holocaust and that “theological point” becomes easy to understand—human wickedness is too disgusting to witness. Some of us have considered the cost Jesus Himself paid in going to the cross, but what price could you offer any parent to allow that to happen to their child? Did you know He did it for the sake of redeeming you and me? “BEHOLD, WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER HAS GIVEN UNTO US…” Did you have any idea you were so loved and valued, that your worth was priced so high? If you have ever been tempted to think that you are not precious, imagine telling that to a Father who paid such a cost for you. And if you have ever been tempted to think that Jesus is just one of many ways to God or have thought you could satisfy Him by being a good person, again, imagine telling that to a Father who paid such a cost, because one day you will have to. Finally, if you’ve ever been tempted to think that your pain is too deep to be healed or your (heart, marriage, family, identity) is too broken to be restored, imagine a Father describing the above trauma to you and then telling you that after the horrendous death, His Son came back to life and now they live together in perfect wholeness and joy. Your pain, be it ever so deep, is not deeper than His healing. YOU ARE SO VERY LOVED.