The eggs that won the war

This week's verses are Colossians 1:19-20:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son
and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

God's fullness dwells in Jesus. His everything. Eternal perfection concentrated into one person. All of his eggs were in one basket. If you had such a treasure, would you risk it? Would you take that basket and throw it in the air?

But God risked everything, his perfect son, in order to reconcile things. All things. To make peace. To end the war. Because we were at war. And not just at war, but fighting on the wrong side. Our sin made us enemies. Doomed enemies.

God made peace through his own blood. Poured out. The ultimate price. Not the sacrifice of something else. Himself and himself only. He did it to fix *everything*. No one else had anything as valuable as that to put on the altar.

Would you sacrifice yourself to help a bunch of people who hated you? People who had done unforgivable things? People who, at best, considered you a distant acquaintance, who rejected you and kept you at arm's length, and took you for granted? Would you stand by and watch, and allow someone you love, like your own child, to be strung up and murdered in front of you in order to help those people?

God was pleased to do this. He was pleased to become man in order to reconcile all things. To be heartbroken, bullied, tormented, slandered, and murdered in an act of injustice. All for us. Nothing he had was too expensive a price to save us. His love is supreme. It is the purest, most refined, most expensive love ever to exist. And we're invited to partake of it, to taste it, and to follow his example. Can you love like that?

Next time you look at a basket of Easter eggs, think of God's love for us. Think of all of the things you wouldn't do, even for a friend, that he did for people who held him in contempt. In seeing him as our example, we should long to be like him. Thank God we can join his team, experience his peace and his love, and not be condemned to the destruction his enemies deserve.