So far, there’s no worse sound than hearing my innocent baby cry. I immediately spring into action, looking to see if there’s a way I can alleviate her frustration or stop her pain. But when she can’t be calmed? When she’s got a hurting tummy, or she’s too tired to sleep, and the cries just keep getting more intense, I want to break down with her. It hurts me to see her hurting. I am driven to action because I’m her mom, and God gave me these instincts to protect my baby girl.

As I was observing the Lord’s Supper recently, my baby girl started to cry. It’s like she can sense when I want her to be quietest, and she stirs. And so, during a time when I was focusing on my Lord, her cries started, and I immediately had a painful realization: I could calm the cries of my innocent child, but God chose not to as He heard His innocent Son crying out from the cross.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

God didn’t deliver Jesus from the pain of the cross. Instead, God watched as the world He’d created crucified the One who was sent to deliver them from their sins. God watched as Jesus bled and died for a sinful humanity; soaked with sin while His Son was perfectly spotless. How those cries must have hurt God! How that moment in time must have been so very difficult for our Father! Knowing He had the power to stop the pain, but refusing to do so because it would send all of us to hell.

The next time you hear a baby cry, or your baby cry, think about our Father in heaven and give thanks that He loved us so much that He let His Son cry out for us. He let Jesus suffer, alone, for you and me.