Loss

You don't have to live very long to experience loss in this world. From a favorite toy or a beloved pet as a child, to the death of loved ones as an adult. And death doesn't wait to touch us until we are adults. My Pawpaw passed away just before I turned twenty, but my children lost their Granddad before they were ten. The title of my devotional reading today was "Divestiture". I am often self-absorbed. If something doesn't impact me directly and explicitly, I don't tend to notice. I love this devotional book because it is so centered on Christ. Here are a couple of paragraphs that jolted me out of my self-absorption... at least for a minute.

"Even though we're all familiar with loss, and some losses are agonizingly grievous, we've never experienced the loss that was known in heaven when the Father sent his Son to earth (1 John 4:14). Even though we are quite familiar with separation in relationship, we can't imagine what it cost the Trinity to redeem us. Think about the Trinity: here was a relationship that was completely perfect in every way. There was an abundance of love and joy flowing in eternal reciprocity between the three members of the Godhead. Never was there a shadow of doubt about commitment, affection, honor. Complete faithfulness, complete agreement, complete self-sacrificing delight, and complete transparency forever and ever. As I said, we can't imagine what our sin cost him. We can't imagine the depth of a love that would sacrifice such joy for the good of another...

Astonishing as it was, the incarnation wasn't the most astonishing divestiture. Christ's return to the glories of heaven and enjoyment of the unhindered sight of his Father's glory was going to be delayed by another loss. On the cross, the Father would forsake the Son and pour out all his wrath upon him. We cannot imagine the horror and stripping felt by the God-man Jesus Christ when his Father poured out full wrath on him and forsook him. All he could cry was, "Why?" We cannot imagine the loss of the Father, who was "pleased" to crush the beloved one who brought him such pleasure. We've never known separation and loss like that. Thank God that we never will." ~~Comforts from the Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:7-14
 
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:1-12