"You Chose to Hurt...for Me?"

(If I may, I'd like to suggest that you scroll back to the next-to-last post {title: The Mender} and refresh your memory regarding the topic, because this is the poem that I offered to share then, and it fits in, in continuity with what I wanted to say.)
 

                                     You Chose to Hurt...for Me?

                       My hands and feet hurt...they're sore.
                       Yours hurt, too...but, even more,
                                  as You carried the Cross, they bled.
                                  Look back at the trail You left...dirty red.

                      Though Simon took from You their symbol of hate,
                       there wasn't a lifting of the weight
                       that ripped at Your life and made it bleed.
                                    No, of nails in Your body there was no need.
                                    They shouldn't have used them!...because, from the start,
                                     we'd already pounded them through Your heart.

                       The Love that You bled, spilling death-crushing power,
                        won my life in the vilest of Wars.
                        For me You would choose all that hurt, all that pain?
                        What's my suffering when placed next to Yours?

                        My pain slows me down, keeps my life on a tether.
                        Your pain, my Lord, stopped Your life altogether...
                                        But only for that trillionth of a second
                                         that it took for You
                                         to lay Your empty human body
                                         at Your Father's feet
                                         and cry, "Victory!
                                        "The Lion of Judah will roar!
                                         You can look at Me again, Father;
                                         I am sin no more!"

                         When I'm sore and I hurt, there are tears - I cry, too,
                          "Look at me, Lord...I can't do it...will You?"
                          It's not always easy to cry, as You do, "Victory!"
                          ...but always You've known that it wouldn't be;
                          that's one of the reasons You did it for me.
                                                                                            - Becky Rhon

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 Another thing that I often wonder about is that God knew very well that we would betray Him, that in breaking His laws, we would break His Heart...and yet He still created us! He knew that the only way His soon-to-be-created creatures would be able to be His beloved children was through the death of His Son.  And Jesus came to earth willing to do that, eager to play His part in giving us an Eternity in His Father's presence. He would have saved Himself a lot of heartache if He just hadn't made us! But His love was so infinite and intense that He took the risk of having us "spit in His face", in order to have the joy of being Almighty Father and Friend to all of us who, because of Jesus, are allowed - even encouraged - to run into His arms and find everything we need!