I Came For You
by Bruce W. Durbin
(copyright 2002)
"Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee."
Job 14:15
As the day begins and the school bell summons children into their classrooms, there is a sporadic entrance of children into the school building. Some children will wait until the last moment to enter the building.
However, at the end of the school day and the school bell rings in dismissal of the children, the doors of the school are forced open and children explode into the outside world, like waves of water escaping from a broken dam; there is no stopping them.
As the children escape the constraints of the school building, they flow towards rows of parked cars, where parents sit. While a child may be monetarily confused, as to location of their parent's car, there is usually no confusion that a parent is waiting. Likewise, as the children recognized their parents' cars, the parents also recognize their own children.
Unless a child is part of a car pool and has been directed to ride with another adult, the children will seek out their parents' car. Likewise, parents go to the school for their own child, not just to pick up a bunch of children and drive them around.
What happens when the tidewater of children has dissipated and a waiting parent doesn't see their child? Does the parent shout to a passing child:
"Hey you, I'm a parent and I can't find my child, so you hop in my car and go home with me, because I need a child."
No, despite occasional disagreements with their children, parents want their own children to take home. This is not an occasion where any child will suffice; the parent wants their own child.
After waiting an appropriate amount of time (maybe the child had an appointment to talk with a teacher), the parent will go searching for their child. The parent will not leave the school, until they have secured their own child safely in the car. The parent wants their own child because they love their child like no other parent could.
Who wants you?
Like parents waiting outside of a school building, God wants His children and He patiently waits for His children to come to Him. Those that have received salvation are as the children that bolt from the school doors and run directly to their parents. Those that have not yet received salvation are as the children that are wandering the hallways of the school, leaving their parents to try and find them.
God wants you. As Matthew 18:11-14 relates:
"For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."
If there had only been one lost soul, Jesus Christ still would have came to this earth, in order to assure that not even one soul would be lost to eternal damnation. If there had only been you, Jesus Christ still would have came to this earth, in order to assure that you would have eternal life.
As Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, He whispered, "I came for you." As each person is born into this world and walks through their life, Jesus Christ comes to them and again whispers, "I came for you."
________________________________________________________________________________
Bruce W. Durbin is a freelance writer, whose articles have featured on many Christian online publications. He is also the author of Almost Heaven and Almost Hell (www.iuniverse.com and www.barnesandnoble.com).
