When Losing is Gaining

For the inagural post on Isaac's memorial site, we want to talk about when losing is gaining. In the eigth chapter of Mark's gospel, Jesus tells His disciples what it means to follow Him:

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" (vs. 35-36)

Jesus is so gracious to tell us the truth. A decision to follow Him is not, as some would proclaim today, a decision to receive health, wealth, blessing, peace, prosperity and contentment. He calls us to die. That He blesses His children is undeniable but Jesus does not call us to heaven on earth and if we believe in Him with that expectation, we will be most dissapointed.

A true decision to follow Christ is to examine Jesus and agree with Him about His supreme worth, beauty and majesty; To agree with Him that He is the Sovereign Lord who has all authority in heaven and on earth; And to bend your will to His own. Jesus has asked us to do that recently with our son Isaac. He was a good gift given to us by an infinitely better Giver.

We loved Isaac with the deepest and most profound love that parents are capable of but after 31 short weeks in the womb and four minutes outside of it, God took Isaac from us. Our hearts are torn with grief yet we proclaim with Job that God is still good; His name is still worthy to be blessed. In losing Isaac we are gaining a deeper love for our glorious Savior and are learning to treasure Him as our chief delight.

We believe that we will see our son again because God has saved both us and him by His great grace. However, that is not what brings comfort to our hearts in the wake of his passing. It is the glorious truth that while we may lose everything we hold dear here on earth, we will never lose the lover of our souls - Jesus Christ.

Jesus is using our son to teach us that there is nothing on earth more precious than our souls and nothing, not even a baby boy, that can satisfy them save Jesus Christ alone. That God would use our son to teach us to prize Christ above all other treasures is a good gift indeed. And, when any repentant sinner humbly clings to Christ in faith, that wretch realizes what a glorious gain he has achieved.

We urge you to consider the claims of Christ and His gospel message. Click on the highlighted phrase to the left to consider that gospel. To do so would be the best way we can imagine that you could honor Isaac's memory.