What a Risk!

John 1, 3:16, Hebrews 9:26, I Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8

Heavenly Father,

I have recently been pondering the risk You took by sending Your Son, Jesus, to earth.  When I think about it, I am amazed that any Father would risk so much with His own Son.  I never liked to expose my children to risk.  I remember feeling obligated to run to my daughter’s defense and protection.  When I tried to protect my son from risk, he finally told me, “Dad, I’m old enough to fight my own battles.  Don’t try to fix it for me.”

Surely, my instinct to protect my own children is part of Your image stamped on me in Creation. You made this way.  But Your likeness is diminished in me because I suffer under the curse of the Fall.  If I feel this God-given desire to protect my own, You must feel it all the more so. How could You, the Loving Heavenly Father, take such a risk with Your only Son?

You risked His life!  Life expectancy in the first century Roman world averaged twenty to thirty years.  If one lived to age ten, life expectancy might extend to age 45!  The average life span was lowered by a 25% or higher infant mortality.  Nearly one-half of all babies born never saw their tenth birthday!  Yet childbirth was the delivery system You chose to introduce the Savior of the world!  What a risk!

You risked His being an inconvenience.  Parentage by the Holy Spirit is a once in a Creation event!  You performed repeated miracles and angelic announcements to convince even Mary and Joseph, the main players in the saga, of the veracity of such a miracle.  Today, such a conception would be regarded as an inconvenience, and would be ended.  What a risk!

You risked His being an embarrassment.  Apart from Your angelic proclamation, Mary would have been irreversibly embarrassed, exploited, divorced, or even stoned to death.  Her family would have suffered shame.  Perhaps they did anyway.  Your Son would have suffered cruel shame and ridicule.  Perhaps He did anyway.  What a risk!

You risked His rejection.  You placed a radical message of love in Your Son’s heart, and we killed Him for it.  What a risk!

I don’t think I would be willing to risk my children like You risked Your only Son, Jesus.  I am humbled to think that You would take that sort of risk for me, for my sinful soul, for my salvation–all because You want relationship with me.  Thank You.

Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the risk You took for me, and for the entire human race,
Amen.