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| “Grateful for the sacrifices made...for me!” |
Points2Ponder
By Alan P. Scaglone
WARNING: Alan is getting on his soap box- Tread carefully!!
You know what’s missing in our world today??
I’ll tell ya, since you asked!
What’s missing is…no one is grateful for what someone else did for them!
We only remember that “last thing” done for us…on our way to the next thing we “need” someone to do.
There’s no history file in our internal computer that goes back and says: on this date, this person did this for you—and you should STILL be GRATEFUL!
POINTS2PONDER Why is it that we forget so quickly the things that are done for us—even though our lives needed what was given and have been forever changed by it???
This is an important week if you call yourself a Christian- it’s our Holy Week—and so much of what we attribute to Christianity centers around the events of the next 5 days!
There was a time when, our nation stopped to celebrate the gift given so freely by someone who had no reason to give…but for love…of all of us!
What started with “Maudy Thursday”’s Last Supper and progressed to the ultimate moment of self-sacrifice for the greater good of mankind…
With a prayer that ended in the words, “NeverTheLess…not my will, but Your will be done!”
Who prays like that? Who puts the needs of others over the desires of themselves? Who???
Then the day we call “Good Friday”—great for us, not so “good” for the man who had been beaten, spit upon, mocked, and made to carry a convict’s wooden cross up a shamed hill.
Maybe we forgot just what HE did for us…it was so many years ago, and we now take it so easily for granted.
In case you need a reminder…here’s what Christ experienced for you--called the “Science of the Crucifixion!”
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to death.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike
other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion-- Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.
The nails were driven into His wrists. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike
other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion-- Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.
The nails were driven into His wrists. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.
The Roman guards knew that fact when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back
muscles to support himself so that He could breath.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross.
muscles to support himself so that He could breath.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross.
Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breathe.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.
A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped and an even larger nail hammered through the arches, then a
Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.
Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His wrists and feet; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest..
He carried his own cross for almost 1 and 1/4 miles, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 66 pounds of weight, only for the hanging post where His hands were nailed).
Just when you are about to gloss over the next 5 days, doesn’t it still stop you dead in your tracks???
The look of love, hanging from that cross, as HE looked out into the future and saw….me and you!
Grateful ? ? ?
Yes, after all these years--YES!
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