SACRIFICIAL ONENESS
by Wayne Freedman
How many times have you heard or said, "They
don't appreciate the things I do for them!" And behind such a
statement is the premise that others should be grateful and drawn
into a closer relationship with us when we sacrifice for them. But
they often don't and we are usually disappointed.
I was doing some reading this last week and
came across an insight from the Hebrew word for “sacrifice."
which has a root word meaning of “close or related." So
the act of making a sacrifice does produce closeness between the
one offering the sacrifice and the recipient of the sacrifice. And
the closeness is not a physical proximity, but rather closeness of
feelings. Thus the question arises, who feels closer to whom as a
result of making a sacrifice.
My first thought was that the one for whom the
sacrifice was made would be
drawn closer because of their appreciation for
what has been done for them. But life has not proved that to be
true.
I often wondered what the Old Testament
sacrifices were designed to accomplish, because God never says I
will love you more because you offer sacrifices to Me. He does,
however say, “I have loved you with an everlasting love,”
[Jeremiah 32:3] and over thirty times in the book of Psalms alone,
the various authors of these Hebrew songs affirm, “For His
loving kindness is everlasting.“ That means His feelings for
us never change! So if the sacrifices didn't affect God's love for
them who did they affect?
The answer is, the one making the sacrifice! He
makes himself feel closer to the one for who he has sacrificed.
That's why God set up the sacrificial system, so they would feel
closer to Him, because His love for them never changed. They
needed to sacrifice to grow their affection for Him, and so do we!
When we give anything back to Him, our time, our talents, our
destiny, etc. it affects our feelings of closeness to Him. We love
and appreciate Him more.
And it works the same way in human
relationships. If we want to feel closer to someone, we need to
sacrifice for them and our feelings of closeness will be affected.
We will be changed because we gave.
We, as a community, sacrifice for one another
as is again being demonstrated by our support for Sue Paradis.
She told me last week that she's blown away by
the thoughtfulness of our folks.
While it's great that she is so appreciative,
I've noticed a new closeness developing between those who are
organizing events in her honor or giving to her need. Once again
our sacrifices are helping us grow even closer as "A
Community That Cares”
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