What are some of the benefits of being saved? (continued…)
Ephesians 1:3-14
- He gives us His love (4) and accepts us (6),
My wife was very scared when we had our first baby. We moved midway through pregnancy, far, far away from family, and, naturally, our HMO would not apply in our new location. She also had a rough pregnancy and the gynecologist we got stuck with could hardly speak English and had terrible bedside manner. At a regular check-up, two weeks before the due date, her blood pressure spiked and the gynecologist ordered another ultrasound right away and then a C-section, first thing in the morning. If that was not hard enough on her, I was not giving her the support she needed at the time. Even though I was there, holding her hand and by her side for the delivery, the words of encouragement she wanted to hear from me just did not come out of my mouth. I was speechless or dumb, whichever word you want to choose – she chose the latter.
But then our baby came out and started to cry. The nurse said, “Oh……it’s a blondie!” From that moment on, all of my wife’s fears turned to joy. For the rest of the day in the hospital, we took turns holding our baby and loving her. The nurse came in and told me at one point that it would be ok for me to lay her down “a while” (this was in Pennsylvania, and everything was “a while”) but I refused. I figured that every minute I had with our new daughter was time that I would not be able to spend with her later on. 20 years later, she’s heading off to college for another semester. I was right! Those precious moments to hold my daughter in my arms are few and far between now and I am so glad I made the most of every extra minute we had together in that hospital room.
We loved our new baby. We love our daughter. We accept our daughter as our own. What more can be said? When we are saved, or “born again”, that is exactly how God loves and accepts us!