I had the most enlightening, although unwanted, experience this week. I cannot count the number of times I have sat behind the wheel of my car driving to one hospital or another so that I might have the opportunity to minister to one our church members or their family. This is a part of being a pastor that I take very seriously. This week, however, for the first time, I was driving to same sort of place, a hospital. The difference? I was the one about to undergo a procedure, I was the patient and not the encourager. This role is very unfamiliar to me, and one I must say I do not enjoy. However, I have now crossed the line from sympathy, caring about you and what you are going through, to empathy, knowing what you are going through because I have now gone through the same thing.

 

This so beautifully illustrated the incarnation. It would have been enough for God do have done everything necessary to bring about our redemption from the throne room of