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Sacrifice

Dear Friends,

 

I saw a story in the news that brought a tear to my eye, so I thought I would share it with you, even though you might have seen it, too.

 

On the day before Thanksgiving, a nine-year-old boy fell through the ice of a retention pond in a suburb near Chicago. He was chasing a football that had landed out on ice that must have looked to a nine-year-old like it was strong enough to hold him. But he ended up falling through and couldn’t get out.

 

A frantic 9-1-1 call came in, and the police were dispatched immediately. When they arrived, they saw another person, an adult woman, who had gone in after the boy, but who now needed help as well.

 

Two officers went into the icy waters and rescued both the boy and the woman. The boy went to the hospital and was treated for minor injuries and released. The woman was treated on scene and was fine. The mother of the boy, when they were reunited, holding her son in a tight hug said she was just sure at one point that, “her son was not going to be here,” when she saw him drowning. She said, “I want to thank all the people who rescued him.”

 

The rescue did create a bit of sacrifice for the officers primarily responsible for the rescue, especially one. Both sustained minor injuries and went to the hospital for treatment, but were quickly released. But for one officer, it was more than that. He admitted in an interview that his wedding ring had fallen off during the rescue. His wedding ring! I don’t know if it might ever be found, maybe a small rescue operation for it can be mounted, and it can be retrieved. I hope so. But for most of us, this is not a small sacrifice for him to have made.

 

Its getting close to Christmas, and even though we associate the sacrifice that Jesus made more with the Lenten and Easter seasons in the spring, the beginning of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us was at his birth, in a manger, at Christmas. Look at this passage from Philippians 2:6-8, that describes this sacrifice:

 

[Christ Jesus,] who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality

with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,

assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled

himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.

 

In the same passage, Paul encourages us to take on the same mind of Jesus, that is, just as Jesus sacrificed himself for all of us, and just as that police officer made a sacrifice to save that nine-year-old boy, we must be ready because we might be called on at some point to sacrifice so that others might be helped and rescued and saved.

 

So, even as we celebrate this time of year in remembering the birth of Jesus and the sacrifice he made to bring us new life, we might remember too that the season is also about the sacrifice we might be called on to make as we offer grace and hope and help to others.

 

Grace and Hope to you,

Pastor Duane