Born with a tear in His eye!

(Octavius Winslow, "Evening Thoughts")  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

The life of our adorable Lord was a life of continuous trial. From the moment He entered our world, He became leagued with suffering. He identified Himself with it in its almost endless forms. He seemed to have been born with a tear in His eye, with a shadow of sadness on His brow. He was prophesied as "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." And, from the moment He touched the horizon of our earth, from that moment His sufferings commenced.

He did not come to indulge in a life of tranquility and repose.
He did not come to quaff the cup of earthly sweets.

He came to suffer!

He came to bear the curse!

He came to drain the deep cup of wrath!

He came to weep!

He came to bleed!

He came to die!

Our Savior was a cross-bearing Savior!

Our Lord was a suffering Lord!

He turned His back upon . . .
  the pleasures,
  the riches,
  the luxuries,
  and even the common comforts of this world;
preferring a life of . . .
  obscurity,
  penury,
  and suffering.

Jesus . . .
  hungered,
  thirsted,
  labored,
  sorrowed,
  wept,
  suffered,
  bled,
  died!

He . . .
  was scourged,
  was bruised,
  was mocked,
  was smitten,
  was spit upon,
  was nailed to the tree,
  was pierced,
  was slain!

"He was pierced for our transgressions,
 He was crushed for our iniquities;
 the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
 and by His wounds we are healed!" Isaiah 53:5

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
 so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!"
2 Corinthians 5:21