GOD’S UNMATCHED COMPASSION
9-2-24 | Writing this one through some tears… these people at Starbucks probably think I’m crazy. Oh well…
I remember being lost without Christ when I was 16 years old, facing one of the biggest challenges of my life as my older brother was wheeled through a hospital hallway on life support to a helicopter. He didn’t make it. That was almost 25 years ago and the pain is still there.
I went to church all the time and I could say the right things and look like I was fine but in my heart I was rebellious and didn’t truly believe in God or desire to have a relationship with him.
My brother’s death was tragic and sudden. It was also the result of some of his own very bad decisions. One of the biggest things I remember is that our church family went out of their way to help us not only financially to take care of needs but to check on us, pray for us and our Pastor went above and beyond to love us and care for us during that time.
I had never experienced such an overwhelming outpouring of love. They truly showed the love and compassion of Christ in that moment. For a year after that, I watched as people continued to love us, care for us and call us. I could tell that they truly had empathy… they felt what we were feeling.
A year later I accepted Christ as my Savior. I knew that God’s love was real. I had experienced it, even as a lost person. My life has never been the same. God used people full of compassion to change my life.
In the book of Ezekiel, God is recalling how he loved and cared for Israel when no one else would…
Ezekiel 16:5-6
“None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.”
This week it would be good to remember God’s compassion to you and look for ways to show that compassion to others. You never know, there might be a 16 year old boy out there watching you to see if it’s real.
