Soul Kitchen

Every day my kids beg me to tell them a story of when I was younger or they want to know the story of the book I’m reading. We were cuddled up and they had a barrage of questions for me and one of them involved 9/11 because I was reading a book about it. I took them to the computer and showed them YouTube videos of the plane hitting the Twin Towers and the collapse of the towers and told them about the other 2 planes, one being the plane that crashed into the field in Pennsylvania. They were awestruck by the fact that all those people on that plane chose to risk their own lives and died so that others would live. They saved the plane from hitting the Pentagon. We got into an amazing discussion about this and how as Christians we can relate this to Christ laying down His life for us.

This lead to the story of a train bridge operator I once heard and impacted me. He had a call that a passenger train was coming and he needed to get the bridge down so the train could cross the river. The man lived on the property with his family so he could be ready to lift the bridge up or move it down at a moment’s notice for either the boats to get across or the train to go over the river. He hit the botton for the bridge to go down. It was evening and things were starting to get dark. He knew exactly the time it took for the bridge to lift up and down and that his timing would need to be perfect for the passenger train to come across. As the bridge was lowering, he looked out and saw something on the tracks. Suddenly he realized it was his son playing on the bridge…

....he knew that if he reversed the bridge to go back up that the passenger train would plummet into the river, killing hundreds and that his son would live. If he allowed the bridge to continue downward so the passenger train could cross over, that hundreds of lives would be saved and that the life of his son would be lost. He had to make a choice and a tough one that would be…

… he chose to save the passenger train.

As a mother the thought torments me of what this gentleman needed to wrestle with. How many of us would give our own lives for the life of our children. I know that when my children are sick I would take their place in a heart beat. When they’re hurting or sad, I feel the same thing. The love we have for our own flesh and blood runs so deep.

What an illustration of how deep the Father’s love is for us. God chose to send His one and only son to die for us that we could have eternal life. Many of us know this verse very well:

John 3:16 (NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Here it is in other translations to help understand the verse:

The Message says "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."

The Amplified Bible says “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."

God loves us so much yet he sent his Son to die for us that we may live. God loved his son too and it must have been agonizing for him knowing what Jesus had to suffer for us. He did that so we may live. Christ died for you and me so we may be free. What an amazing sacrifice!