I recently listened to a man singing along with a patriotic country song.  Knowing firsthand some of the character and attributes of this person, my first thought was, “you don’t deserve the sacrifice they gave.”

Not very Christ-like was I.

It got me thinking.

Who has the gall to say that they deserve to have someone else sacrifice their life for them?  Can the president of a country truthfully say that the lowest scum should die in his place?  Can a movie star say that of a prostitute?  Can a CEO say that of a drug addict?

No.  Though some might, no one ever should.

And who would have the audacity to say to a mother, “your son died for me but I don’t like it.  I want your other son to die for me.”

Don’t we just accept that we don’t deserve to have a soldier die for our freedom?  Don’t we intuitively know that what they’ve done can never be repaid, should never be taken for granted?

Then I hear the argument about a loving God making it so difficult to come into His kingdom.  “Why can’t there be multiple paths to God?”

The gall!  The audacity!

We don’t deserve what He did.  I don’t.

I certainly don’t want to ask Him for some greater sacrifice, some greater display of His love for me.

There isn’t one, by the way.  And I don’t want to stand in front of Him one day with the temerity to say He should have done better.

Hell will be justified.