Heroes Such As These

Sometimes a person will make a really bad decision and stay up until 1:30am the night (or rather, the morning) before she has to get up at 6:00am. Sometimes that works out really, really poorly for her.

But sometimes, only sometimes, it is utterly worth whatever might follow.

You see, I stayed up until 1:30am last night (this morning...ick) talking to a friend and the consequence of that conversation was not only the dang-blasted exhaustion I face today, but also an intense dose of hope and joy.

This same friend had invited me to her house over the weekend, and I had the privilege of meeting many of her family and friends. Last night, she told me a story about one of the women whom I encountered. Hebrews 11:38 describes heroes of the faith as people "of whom the world was not worthy." After I had heard this woman's story, I believe that I can honestly say that I have had the honor of meeting one of these people in the flesh. I don't know names, so I won't use them. Really, we only have five characters: Mama, Daddy, Doctor, Baby Boy, Little Brother, and Jesus. Here is their incredible tale of faith:

If you've ever seen the movie Up, you've seen an animated depiction of what miscarriage does. Imagine that you are that couple in real life. Imagine that nine times over. Mama gave birth to a son successfully the first time, but following him, she suffered nine incomplete births. The last one, Baby Boy, she actually delivered without issue.

Except there was a mistake.

A horrible mistake.

Doctor's mistake.

Because of this mistake, Baby Boy only lived in the air of this world for about half an hour. Then he went to be with Jesus.

For Mama and Daddy, this was the all-too-familiar grief suffered by the parents of another lost child. For Doctor, this was the grief of causing that loss.

What was that moment like? I can't even imagine. To lose your children one after another inside your own body, and then lose another outside your body because of the preventable mistake of the very person whose job it was to introduce your child to life--it's a horror story I never want to hear.

But this is not a horror story. This is not that story. This story has a different ending.

Mama became pregnant again. Perhaps they had already decided their course of action were this to take place. Perhaps the question presented itself only when their next pregnancy did. Either way, at some point they had to ask: What do we do?

Decision made, Mama and Daddy went to Doctor.

We forgive you, they said to Doctor.

We want you deliver this child, they said to Doctor.

What it was that went through Doctor's head and heart at that moment, what it was he said to these parents is not for me to know or speculate. All I can know is that the decision of this couple is such a clear reflection of Christ's selfless, αγαπη, love that it blinds me through physical tears in my eyes and the metaphysical magnificence of its beauty.

A few months later, Little Brother was born. He is the youngest of only 2 children on this earth, but truly the loved littlest of Mama and Daddy's 11.

What faith

What forgiveness

What trust in Christ Jesus that couple displayed to lay aside any thought of themselves or of bitterness from the past

What divine love.

The kingdom belongs to such as these.

Best wishes,
Nicole

Gratitude vs. Sacrifice: A Response

Ms. Voegtle over at The Haven of Expression wrote this piece on Psalm 50 last month. This is a response.

The God Who Does Not Need

I won't try to summarize her arguments--go read them for yourself--but for the purpose of contextualizing this response, this is her question, and these are her answers:

Why does God prefer an offering of thanksgiving rather than the practice of sacrifices?

• The act of sacrifice was an overt action that expressed a covert attitude.
• No one would claim something that could cost a life if that thing weren't worth the price dearly paid.
• The act of sacrificial gratitude out of one's own free will expresses a thanksgiving that truly honors the Lord.

She derived her arguments from Psalm 50, but sacrificial giving is an ongoing idea present in the New Testament as well. Read Jesus' remarks to his disciples about the widow in Mark 12:41-44:

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

High words of praise from the mouth of God himself bestowed upon none other than one of Israel's lowest and poorest! Why? Because she did as Paul would later command the church at Corinth to do in II Corinthians 9:7, "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Verse 12 of that same passage highlights a key component about giving: "For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God."

The two purposes of offerings detailed in this verse are the sustenance of the saints, who very definitely need the material provisions of food, water, shelter, and clothing in order to live, and thanksgiving to God. This verse explains the importance of giving cheerfully emphasized earlier. If the gift is not bequeathed with a willing and glad heart, it may fulfill the first purpose, but it will surely fail to meet the second.

At this point it is interesting to note that the polytheistic Greeks and Romans believed that the gods needed them. Not because the gods needed the food of mortals, but because they needed their honor. A god was not a god if nobody worshipped him. The Greek word for this is κλεος (kleos). It is not just honor, but social honor; the reputation one or more of them held among their peers.  So sacrifices for those gods were very necessary—not for sustenance in basic existence, but for sustenance in their status as god.

In contrast to that, the God of the Bible doesn’t need our honor. C.S. Lewis expressed the human effect on the Divine perfectly when he said, "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." By definition, a "perfect being" is complete in himself. God does not need us.

For that matter, corrupted beings such as we cannot even manage to do good on own own. In Isaiah 64:6, the prophet's supplication for mercy, he described the human condition: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment." 

So why this call for sacrificial thanksgiving iterated in Psalm 50? What good is the honor of a race whose best act is comparable to filthy rags? What good is our existence and offering to a God who is Perfect in all He does? Why do we still live?

We live because He wants us to live, and as Ms. Voegtle wrote, He wants us to live with thanksgiving. An outward display of faith that costs us something (i.e. sacrifice) shows that we value it enough to risk whatever it is that we are staking. It teaches us to demonstrate in a visible way that God is well worth whatever we could possibly have to give. Unlike the pagan ancients, God required sacrifices of His people for their benefit, not His. Both then and now He asks that we offer thanksgiving--our inadequate gratitude--sacrificially to Him. It is only fitting, it is only natural that the position of highest honor for any man is upon his knees, giving glory to his king. What an honor for us, to be able to honor Him!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, 

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name! 

For the Lord is good; 

his steadfast love endures forever, 

and his faithfulness to the generations.

Psalm 100:4-5

Best wishes,
Nicole