Seeing the Cross through a Glass of Milk

"Faith in falsehood is failure.... Faith in truth is of the utmost reward."

There he was, alone on the main floor of his log cabin. This wasn't the kind of night where you laugh, eat Oreos, and drink Dr. Pepper. No. Rather, the 17-year-old in this story was bending over, cringing and wincing in pain. His eyes were squinted. (I imagine the face was priceless!) Haha - ohh that huuuuuuuuurts!

So I drank milk.

They (don't ask who - it was just they who) told me milk helps calm stomach aches... or was it heartburn? So I Googled it. Well, it cures heartburn, but I'm told that if my pain was caused by acid I won't be able to move for a while. I don't know. Anyway, I was bending over and holding my stomach like some unearthly monkey who drank a pool of all-corrosive acid.

But seriously now - this isn't the kind of thing anyone wants to experience. It hurts, and when I say hurts I mean hurts. It hurt for Jesus too. He's the One that came to mind as I was holding that glass of milk with one hand and my stomach with another.

Did I want to put the milk in my stomach? No. Trust me - it's painful putting a glass of lactose into a stomach ache. But I did it because I believed the bitterness would be worth it. So faith is a wonderful thing, right? Well, not if it's misplaced. If there really is a bunch of acid in my stomach and if milk really does make it worse, I could have all the faith in the world that it would remove my aches and pains and that would just make things worse! Faith in falsehood is failure. It leads to extended, unexpected pain.

"[But I, for the joy set before me, endured the milk - despising the lactose - and have sat down on the living room chair.]"

Original: "Jesus... for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

Faith in truth is of the utmost reward.

Tonight I got a tiny glimpse of what Jesus felt in the Garden when He prayed, "Take it from Me." That phrase was where I stopped praying, but Jesus went on further: "Yet not My will, but Thine." And it was the Father's will that Jesus taste the cup of gall. He bore it to dark Calvary "and suffered and died alone" (from the hymn "My Savior's Love"). His death was full of wormwood.

But He did it for the eternal joy that awaited. Imagine the applause of Heaven when Jesus walked through the gate! Just try to conceive how much better being the Lord of all is now to Him who was the cursed of all (Galatians 3:13).

And so I come back to what is perhaps the main tenet of my worldview: God brought evil into the world so He could beat it. Because of the bad, we have the good news - the gospel. Because of sin's prevalence, we have victory. Because of the bitter cross, we have eternal joy. And because of it I say to my Lord:

"Your blood has washed away my sin -
Jesus, thank You!
The Father's wrath completely satisfied -
Jesus thank You!
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table -
Jesus, thank You!"

~Sovereign Grace Music, "Jesus Thank You"