[Bridge of Clay]

Help Me Understand

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. -- Rom. 5:8, NIV.
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The story is told of a 21-year-old woman in a land recently torn by war
who was in desperate need. It was Christmas Eve, and she was almost
ready to deliver her baby, fathered by a foreign soldier. No one wanted
her or the baby. She started to the home of a missionary, but the baby
was almost ready to come. She stopped at a home along the way to plead
for help.

"Where is your soldier now? Let him help you," the couple answered.

She stopped at another home and again was refused assistance. She
finally reached a bridge close to the mission where surely she would
find help. But there was not enough time-the baby was coming now. She
crawled underneath the bridge and delivered her boy.

It was a bitter winter night. She took off her jacket and wrapped him
in it. The baby was still so cold. She took off her blouse, and then
her skirt, to cover him. She gave him everything she was wearing and
cradled him close to her, giving the last measure of her body warmth
until she herself lay frozen under the bridge.

The next morning the missionary started over the bridge to distribute
Christmas gifts. He heard-could it be?-a baby's cry. He climbed down
underneath the bridge and found the boy for whom the mother had
sacrificed everything.

The missionary adopted the child. When the boy had his tenth Christmas
birthday, the missionary thought it was time to tell him the story. So
the man told the boy how his mother had given everything she had so
that he might live. The next morning the child was gone. The frantic
father began looking for him. He found his clothes on the bank by the
river. Climbing down, he found the boy, kneeling, naked, and praying:
"God, help me understand how cold Mama was the night she died for me."

We can never understand how cold Jesus was the day He died for us; how
He felt misunderstood, betrayed, beaten, spit upon, ridiculed,
rejected, separated from His loving Father, executed-for us. "Greater
love has no one than this" (John 15:13, NIV).
-- Ruth Watson