And Yet He Gave...

As I was washing dishes Saturday morning I had the gospel music channel playing--totally made scrubbing the *huge* pile of dishes a little less miserable. I'm {learning} to choose to find the worship in the work. [Paul was laughing at me listening to this station, but I didn't care--I love hearing Southern gospel songs and the old hymns I grew up singing. :)] So as I'm washing away I hear this song called "God Saw a Cross." I'd never heard it before, and the words just really grabbed me...

When Adam saw his wife sin in the garden
In the distance God saw a cross
When Cain killed his brother God was watching
And God saw a cross
When Moses slew the Egyptian man in anger
God saw a cross
And when David chose Bathsheba over honor
God knew there had to be a cross

God saw a cross being raised on the horizon
God saw His son being slain for one and all
God saw His blood being shed for my redemption
For every fall God saw a cross

When I was born the world just saw a sinner
Oh but thanks to Jesus God saw a cross
And when I first rejected His great offer
I'm so thankful God still saw a cross
And with each wicked choice I walked in darkness
My God saw a cross
So blinded by my sin, my soul was helpless
With eyes of mercy God still saw a cross

And when I finally gave my heart to Jesus
From that moment of time until forever
When God sees me He only sees the cross.

It amazes me--I can't even comprehend--that God still chose to create this world, us, knowing we would reject Him.  God so desires relationship with us--relationship with me, who daily says No to Him--that He chose to create us, knowing the Cross would have to come.  He planned it that way. Before He spoke light, before He stretched out his hand to separate the waters and the heavens, before He breathed life into Adam and formed Eve from the rib, He saw the Cross. And yet He created. And yet He gave All.  And now, like the last line of the song says, when He looks at me, this mess of me, He only sees the Cross.  What kind of love is that? 

I am reminded: it is selfLESS, graceFULL love.

imgae via

Oh, to learn how to love with that kind of 

unconditional, emptied of self, full of grace, love.

Hands turning to prunes in the dishwater, the very next song that played was "Because He Lives."  God's timing, how good?!

God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

What hope we have because the veil was torn and He rose! Thanks be to God. 

Colossians 1 

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 

Matthew 28:6
He is not here. For He has risen, just as He said!    

I want to really get it this year, this coming Easter weekend, when we're traipsing to multiple family dinners and egg hunts. I have to stop and really take time to remember: God saw the Cross, and He raised Him from the tomb that we might have new, everlasting life in a relationship with Him.  This is the true, only hope worth sharing.  Oh, Lord, open my eyes and help me to open my mouth.