Though He Was Rich, for our sakes He Became poor
In recent years, I’ve taken to jokingly referring to my childhood household as ‘ahead of its time.’ It sounds better than ‘broken home’ to me. When I was five years old, 75% of all households included a married couple with children. It’s been said that ‘the married household was the foundation of the nation.’
The household in which I was reared did not include a married couple—my birth parents were co-habitating–an unwed man and a woman living together under the same roof. Some whispered that Virginia and Homer were ‘living in sin’. I was an illegitimate son, the result of that ‘sin’. It used to be something one had to ‘live-down’.
Today, I can make light of my household circumstances, but not as I was living out my childhood. We were a household ‘ahead of its time’ in 1967—and it was a cause for shame. My father deserted us—abandoned mom and four children—and never returned. I was 12 years old. We went from middle-class standing to poverty-stricken overnight.
Today, only one-in-five homes boast a married couple with children. Forty years before it was socially acceptable—even cool, sorry to say—our household was what came to be called a ‘broken home’. Even so, I can honestly say that we had it better than Jesus Christ did. In essence, Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and Savior for all humankind was homeless.
“And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Luke 9:58 (KJV)
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9.
He chose poverty. He chose to come live with us on Earth—casting off His rightful place in the Heavenly Country to be a sacrifice for all humankind. To live among us, to die by our hands, then rise from the grave as our Redeemer. He chose that!
I am so grateful He did choose that path for His life. We all should be grateful. Don’t you think so? — FM
