if you wish to be complete

Listened to a song I hadn't heard in a while. Doesn't break the heart any less than when I'd first posted on its meaning. Listening to it this a.m. and another sermon topic came to mind: accepting Christ in all His totality.

Quite easy to separate Christ into little pieces, each one more easily accepted. You can focus on just His friendship and ignore His righteousness. You can focus on His compassion and ignore His judgment on sin. You can focus on His suffering and ignore His love.

God the Father loved Him not just for His baby manger preciousness, but also for His temptation-turning in the wilderness. Father loved Him not just for His childhood innocence, but also for His march up Golgotha. Father loved Him for the manger, and Father loved Him for the cross. And you cannot claim to love Him without loving Him in all His wholeness.