I Love You More
Romans 5
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When I was in first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Fulton, set up a Christmas tree in our classroom and each child brought in a Christmas ornament to decorate it. My mother didn’t work outside of the home, so money was always tight. I have fond memories of sitting around the table, making Christmas ornaments from yarn or paper. When the tree was lit, and the house lights were out, there was no tree more beautiful than ours.
I asked permission to bring in an ornament. Instead of one of our homemade ornaments, my mother took from our tree one of the most treasured ornaments, a silver, mercury glass diorama. It had been a wedding gift, and only my mother could handle these when decorating our tree. She wrapped it in tissue before putting it in a small brown paper bag, as she handed it to me, she reminded me how very special and delicate it was. I remember carrying it so very carefully. I was so excited and nervous at the same time. It made it safely to school and hung on our classroom tree until the very last day of school before break. I didn’t have the tissue or brown paper bag to carry it home in, so I held as tightly as I could to the hook. I was almost home when a gust of wind blew the ornament right off the hook. There it laid, shattered on the walk. I can still feel the anguish as I looked at the pieces trying to figure out how to fix it. My heart sunk as I ran the rest of the way home. When I opened the front door, my mother was in the kitchen, when I saw her, my eyes weld up with tears as I told her what happened.
I fully expected her to be so angry with me. How could I have been so careless and stupid to think I could carry such a valuable home. Why didn’t I hold onto it instead of the hook? “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I sobbed.
“Sweetheart, you mean more to me than that ornament.” She said. She gave me a hug, put on her coat, and walked down the street, with a broom in hand, to clean up the shattered pieces.
Isn’t that just what Jesus is saying to us?
We are helpless to fix our position as sinners with a sinless, holy God. He says to us; you mean more to me than to let you stay where you are: hurting, lost, empty, helpless to fix “it”.
Jesus agreed and came to us. We cry, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I love you.” And Jesus says, from the cross, “I love you more.”
