“Your baby’s almost here! Just one more push!” the nurse urged. “You can do this.”
I didn’t believe her. The last few hours had been sheer agony. So rather than try, I fell back in defeat. But then the nurse held up a mirror, so I could see past the pain to the life that was emerging from it.
The flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones, was waiting; only I could deliver her. A supernatural strength called “love” rose within me, defying any pain between us. I would walk through hell to hold that bundle of joy in my arms. She was worth it all.
And yet, this mother, so full of love that day, is also full of faults. In fact, I come to Jesus most mornings ashamed of what I haven’t done almost as much as what I have. I kneel before Him a screw-up, a faint heart, and a failure. What a disappointment I must be after all He has done for me!
But that’s not the way Jesus sees it.
Hebrews 12:2 tells me I was the joy set before Him as He hung on the cross. In fact, He endured that brutal labor because the thought of holding me in His arms was greater than the suffocating pain.
He would do whatever it took to deliver me. I was not someone He would later regret dying for. On the contrary, I was His joy.
And precious one, so are you.
You are Jesus’ joy, no matter how you’ve failed. Ask Him. He’ll tell you. You are worth it all.
“…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
