With New Ears

Melissa, Jane and I are very excited to introduce you to an amazing advocate, blogger and mom, Katherine. She writes about her young son, their family life, and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  You'll find her blog at http://homemadetatertot.blogspot.com

We're guest posting today too as part of a Christian blog sharing event.  You'll find our post at Dene Ward's blog Flightpaths.  If you've never heard of her, let me highly recommend her devotionals.  She is near the top of the list of women-bloggers Melissa and I would like to grow-up and be!  

With no further ado except to warn you to grab a box of kleenex, Katherine's beautiful thoughts on the crucifixion. 

WITH NEW EARS

A few weeks ago, our new preacher gave a sermon on a Sunday night on a topic that I thought I knew all about.  I've heard the story a hundred times; Jesus was arrested, taken in front of Pilate, admits he is the son of God, and pays the price for it - paving the way for us to gain entry into Heaven.  I'm sure most of you have heard all about it a hundred times, too.  It's only the biggest deal in the Bible - it's the whole point of Christ on Earth.  But as I was sitting there, listening to Brother Dean describe all the details of what agonies Jesus went through, what God chose to allow to happen to His son - it was like I was hearing it for the first time.  In fact, it effected me so much, that I mentioned it to the preacher.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that got to me, though.  Preacher Man could tell it was marinating in my head so much that he even stopped by my house the next night.  I still didn't have an answer for him.  It didn't hit me until last Thursday as I was driving from Ft Campbell, KY to my parents' house in Arkansas.  Then it hit me square in the face.  I grabbed my phone and babbled a barely coherent note to Siri to write this blog as soon as I was back at home in front of my computer.

So why did the Lord's death leave me shaken in a way it never had before?  Because THIS woman had never heard the story before.  Yeah, I know I just said I had heard it a hundred times.  But that was before.  Before Little.  Before Duchenne.  You know, before.

See, I had never heard the story of the crucifixion with a set of mother's ears before.  Having a child changes everything.  Having a child with a chronic illness?  Well.  There's just nothing, no person, and not a single solitary event that I view the same as I did before.  I have more empathy for others, I assume that people are acting out of struggle more than just bad manners or rudeness than I used to, I carry more pain around with me (for myself, my husband, my son, my friends and family who are dealing with hardships, strangers on the news, sad stories on the internet, etc),  I judge less.  I don't mean that I am sad all the time - I am certainly not!  I guess, I just mean that I am softer now.  My corners are less likely to cut you.  This brief time I've had in the world of Duchenne and parenthood has completely altered my perception.

Hearing what our Lord had to endure, I could not stop myself from thinking about his own parents.  Not Joseph so much, because to be honest, I don't really know what happened to him after Jesus taught in the temple when he was 12.  The Bible doesn't say a whole lot else about him.  But Mary was there that day.  Mary was there as they were preparing him for the cross.  As Dean Roach (my preacher) was talking about the stripping of Jesus's robes and the beatings and spitting, I just kept feeling these stabs in my heart for his mother.  To see your child like that?  To know what was about to happen - that he was about to have spikes driven through his wrists as if he were a scrap piece of wood?  Mary had to witness something so unfathomable - her baby nailed to a cross.  Did you all know Jesus was scourged?  That means his beard was ripped off of his face - hand pulled off of his face.  So not only did she see her son on the cross, thorns in his head, but his flesh was missing from his cheeks and chin.  How Mary survived that horror herself, was only through the grace of God.  I sat there listening to Dean describing the details of that day and I couldn't help but think about the pain and suffering that I will have to watch my own child go through as his DMD progresses.  Little's muscles will begin to waste away soon and contract into themselves, painfully pulling away from his joints.  He will begin to lose strength and mobility as that happens, falling more frequently, bruising and scraping and breaking skin and bones along the way.  And as I sat there, comparing and contrasting Mary's experience with my own, one mother to another, I realized that God, too went through everything Mary did.  He's Jesus's father, so all of that parental pain and anguish Mary felt, God felt, too - except that God did it by choice.  God did this on purpose.

God did it for us.

Our God is an awesome God!  Knowing FULL well how horrendous that day would be, God still sacrificed his one and only son as payment for our sins.  He gave up his child for us.  For you.  For me.  For nasty old, pitiful, terrible, sinful, undeserving, scumbags such as ourselves.  He took a chance on us.  He let his son die that way on the shot of just one of us accepting Him as our Almighty, as his Son as our Lord and Savior and that we'd repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins.  There are just no words powerful enough to thank Him.  I just...........oh man.  Nope, no words.  Magnify His name!  

Could I give up my son if it meant a cure for Duchenne?  Could I hand my son over to the wolves and let them rip him apart limb from limb if it meant that by doing so, all anyone with DMD had to do was believe in him and live for God and they'd be free from this disease?  That's essentially what Mary did.  She trusted in God, allowed her son to do what God called him to do, and endured the worst reality anyone could ever face.  The disciples even decided to take her away at one point because they didn't want her to watch Jesus actually be nailed to the cross.  Then she came back.  She couldn't stay away.  No matter how terrible it was, Mary could not stay away from her son's side.  What a remarkable mother.  But could I do the same?  I don't know.  I would hope so, but I don't know.  I had trouble just handing him over to his surgical team earlier this week because of the elevated risk of death he has from anesthesia.   But wow - what incredible parents Jesus had.  We should all be so in love with our children.  Keep in mind that we are all God's children, too.  He gave up one child (Jesus) to save the others (us).  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  John 3:16

I think this particular sermon will stick with me for a very long time.  It has left some vivid images in my head and emotions in my heart.  I am excited to see what other lessons from the Bible are going to sound brand new to me with these "new ears" of mine.  The story of Job is another one that I was able to learn more from this go-round, too.  

If you are reading this from a little blog sharing I am taking part of as a christian blog swap group,  I hope you'll jump over and check out some of my older posts.  "The Diagnosis" is a good one to check out if you have no idea what I'm referencing when I talk about DMD or Little.

To my regulars - Next up: MDA Muscle Walk 2013, Little's surgery, and some RiDiCuLoUsLy fantastic pictures from his 3 yr photo shoot.  Little's Leaguer of  the month will be back next time, too!

God bless!

Don't forget you can get more of Katherine at  http://homemadetatertot.blogspot.com

And you can find us writing today at http://flightpaths.weebly.com