The Blood of Jesus

Father’s Day is coming up, and I’ve got an unusual story about a special dad.  

Hi, welcome to Joni and Friends, and I’m your host, Joni Eareckson Tada. And the story I want to tell you today has to do with a man named Robert that I met many years ago at our Family Retreat. As the story goes, Robert had warned his little boy to stay away from those containers underneath the kitchen sink. But one day Dad walked into the kitchen and saw his little boy, pale and unconscious, on the floor. Somehow his child managed to pry open that drawer and pry the lid off that old bottle of insecticide. The paramedics arrived and, after a few anxious minutes, they were able to revive the child. Yet in the coming days, the tragedy continued to unfold. Doctors reported that the little boy’s brain had suffered a permanent impairment. And although Robert’s son had no concept of what life could have been had he not disobeyed his father, it was his dad who will carry the pain of his son’s disobedience for the rest of his life. 

Oh, it’s a heartbreaking story, I know, and these sorts of things do happen more often than you’d imagine. But I want you to consider with me something for a moment. Let’s apply what happened to Robert’s family – let’s apply it to our relationship with God. Because ask yourself: just who do you think felt the deepest hurt back in the Garden of Eden? It’s true Adam and Eve suffered dreadfully for their disobedience, and it’s true their children suffered the consequences. They couldn’t even begin to understand what might have been. And we can’t understand either. Blinded by our fallen nature, we have only the vaguest notion of what consequences our disobedience has caused in our lives.  

But God, our heavenly Father, oh, he has complete understanding. He sees not only what is and what will be, but also what might have been. Scripture indicates that he feels anguish over our disobedience. And his anguish is far deeper than you and I can possibly understand. Much like Robert who, for the rest of his life, will grieve over all that his son has lost, our Father in heaven is the one who really carries the pain of our wrong-doing. But fortunately, a miracle drug has been applied. Christ’s blood on the cross is an antidote for the awful impairment of sin. That’s what 1 John 1:7 tells us. God says that, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, [get this] and the blood of Jesus, [that’s what it is, the blood of Jesus] his Son, purifies us from all sin.” Friend, the blood of Jesus makes all things right, all things new. We who have brought such pain to God can also bring to him joy and delight and companionship as we accept his cure and walk with his Son.  

And that is exactly what Robert has done, thank the Lord. He cannot undo the wrong that has happened down here on earth. Much like you cannot pluck that pesky tree out of the Garden of Eden, it’s impossible for Robert to go back and remove all enticing objects out from under the sink. What’s done is done. But the future? Robert’s son will one day receive back all that he’s lost and much, much more. Every tear’s gonna be atoned for, especially the tears of the Father. Both our heavenly Father and all the earthly dads like Robert who grieve over what their children have lost. And it’s all because of the miracle of Christ’s blood shed on the cross. For Robert, for you and for me. 

© Joni and Friends