Are you grateful? – Day 10

John’s vision was deteriorating quickly. His local doctor referred him to an eye specialist who could perform a very expensive operation to help him. It was John’s only hope.

After withdrawing all his savings, John made an appointment with the specialist. He was desperate and would give up all his money and possessions for a chance to retain his sight. After careful observation, the specialist came to the conclusion that the expensive operation had to be done urgently in order to save John’s sight. There was only one problem: The doctor’s usual fee for the operation was six times more than all of John’s savings.

“Well,” John sighed disappointedly, “then I’ll have to come to peace with the fact that I will lose my sight. I will never be able to pay that enormous amount of money.” The specialist looked at him and replied: “There is only one way to solve this problem. You cannot pay the bill and I cannot work for such a paltry fee. I will, therefore, have to do the surgery for free.”

Let’s go back in time for a moment. Can you hear the rustle of the leaves where Adam and Eve try to hide from God in the Garden of Eden? They were disobedient to God and, in the process, destroyed their intimate relationship with him. Sin became part of a sin-free world. The sacrifice to heal this crime was expensive. So expensive that neither Adam nor Eve would survive it. Blood had to flow. A life had to be sacrificed.

Flash forward in time to the hill of Calvary. Do you see the Man hanging on the cross in the middle? Do you see the blood running down his cheek before he cries out: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” With these words, he breathes his last. A Man without sin took the world’s sins on his shoulders.

God, like the doctor, knew that we would never be able to pay the price to restore our relationship with him. He, therefore, made the greatest sacrifice imaginable. We read about it in John 3:16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” And it is written in Romans 8:32: “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

God gave his only Son as a sacrifice, in the hope that we would seize the opportunity to build a relationship with him. When last have you thanked God for Jesus?