Wow, three posts in one day!

My first post of today was very "me-centered."  I'm going to leave it as an example of what I DON'T want to do with my posts.

It's not about me.  Life isn't.  It's about the One who created me, who loves me, and who holds my life in his hands.

I was talking with my friend Sara yesterday about how mind-boggling it is, what Christ has done for us.  God came down to earth to live as a human, with all the pain and frustrations and inconveniences that that entails.  He was treated poorly, and at the end of his earthly life was mocked, beaten, whipped, spit upon, jeered at, and finally nailed to a rough cross of wood.

To the Jews who witnessed that, it was the most humiliating death a person could experience: the death of a criminal.  If only they had known that He was there because He had chosen to be.  That He had chosen to experience hell, quite literally, in order that mankind wouldn't have to.  That those who believed in Him and what He had done and that He had done it for them, without any help from them, that they might live.  Eternally.  With the One who loved them so much.

Not only that, but Sara and I talked about how much we still sin against God, despite what He's done for us.  And then, most mind-blowing of all, how He DAILY forgives us from all those sins!  What Jesus suffered on the cross was one payment for all sins of all people of all time.  He already took care of it ALL!  And He forgives every sin of every day.  No matter how many there are.

THAT is grace.  THAT is love.
Well, that's God.