If you live long enough, you’ll learn that life is full of heartache.
Thank goodness, it’s intermingled with intense joy but, for most of us, there’s a cross or two to bear.
That’s why I’m thankful to hear the gospel regularly and clearly.
It’s the message for all time, for all occasions, for all people—–that we are poor miserable sinners, all of us, but that God, in His mercy and love for us, sent His Son to be punished in our place so that we might live forever with Him in a new creation. It’s a grace that we can neither earn nor merit, lavished on us by our Father. He loves us. He sympathizes with us. He understands the deepest groanings of our hearts. He forgives us.
You are forgiven! You are free in Christ!
That is the message for baptisms, for weddings, for funerals, for your death bed, for the ten year memorial of 9-11, for every single Sunday.
Today, more than anything, we celebrate the death and resurrection of One who took our brutal punishment and set us free—-so that when all the towers finally fall—–we rest in the One who has always held the whole world in His hand.
He fights our enemies. He comforts our sorrow.
He gives us life, salvation and forgiveness.
We understand our own suffering and the pain of those around us only through the blood of Christ.
This grace given to us is free in Christ, but it wasn’t cheap.
It cost Him his very life and we live in gratitude for His gifts.
So, yes, we are thankful for our soldiers and for all the heroes of 9-11. We owe them a debt of gratitude. Their suffering is unspeakable.
But only Christ can rescue us from our true enemy and our faith and trust rests in Him and Him only—the One who understands our heartache and wipes away all our tears.
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