Carrying a Weight

We are now deep into the last two weeks of the college semester. This has been our daughter's first full semester of nursing school. While the first two years of college, filled with all of the basics, were not easy, this semester has definitely stood out as the most difficult one yet.

Classes like Pharmacology have challenged her ability to study while maintaining her position on the cross country and track teams. Tests that ask for "all the correct answers" rather than the "choose the BEST answer" have caused her to second guess herself. Test scores that have been lower than she would have liked have depressed her........

and ALL OF THIS has created a heavy weight on me as a mother.

I offer encouraging words. I whisper prayers for support. I listen when she wants to unload. I offer whatever advice I can, but all of this has certainly taken a toll.

Tonight, while thinking about how difficult nursing school can be on the parent, I had a sudden epiphany. Knowing how heavy my burden has been, trying to support my daughter, and carry some of her emotional weight, I cannot imagine the heavy burden and the personal pain that it caused for Jesus to carry the weight of the world's sin to the cross with him.

How many pounds that sin must have weighed! Oh, the amount of emotional pain it must have inflicted on our savior! Yet, he was willing to do it, for us, the sinful humans that we are. He did it so that we might have a chance for renewed life through his resurrection and God's forgiveness.

The semester will end. My pain from emotional stress will ease, but God's love for each and every one of us will not end. No matter what we do, he will always be there, willing to forgive us and wash away that sin. All we have to do is ask.