Above All

Not too long ago, our son Joshua made a trip to the hospital. He's a young guy, only 9 months old, and at the time had no idea of what mom and dad were going through. Joshua had spit up blood three times in five minutes. Joshua didn't appear to be in any pain, but it concerned us that he was spitting up blood (and only blood) in a matter of a small time frame.

It was at the hospital that we had our first tramatic experience as parents. After admitting Joshua overnight, the hospital needed to put an IV in him. My wife and I had the opportunity to hold Joshua down on the hospital bed along with some other medical staff while the IV was put in.

Joshua looked at us with eyes that said, "How come you aren't helping me?!". He gasped for air in between his cries for help, but we still held him down. The nurses told us babies are more upset because they are simply being held down - not because the IV is going in.

The medical staff had the IV half-way in when Joshua quit crying, turned white, and stopped breathing just for a moment. Joshua then began to throw up - choking on his vomit because we were holding him down. We quickly turned him on his side until he stopped and finished putting the IV in. Once the IV was in, Joshua slowly returned to normal and acted like nothing had happened.

This experience gave me a real taste of how it must have been for God and His Son. For God to allow His Son to go through a terrible death on a cross - knowing it hurt Him greatly to go through the process. But it was out of God's love that He allowed Christ to suffer. I understand a little better today how God must have felt to turn His back on His son because of His love for the world. I knew (cognitive) what Christ had done. But I had never felt before what it was like to hold my own son down, to endure pain, to bring about a better ending to the situation.

Dear God...I can never repay You for Your love to me. Above all else, You thought of me to allow Your Son to die in my place. The following is a recent song I've identified with. The chorus connects with me more clearly now...

Above All
(by Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche)

Verse 1
Above all powers above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Verse 2
Above all kingdoms above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth

Chorus 1
Crucified laid behind a stone
You lived to die rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all