I Know the Backstory

The comic panel spoke volumes: grief unsurpassed.

It showed a rear-view picture of two young people sitting on a park bench. The young lad sat with his arm loosely draped around a younger girl.

They both wore sports jerseys. His was a green Broncos one.

Hers, a yellow Toronto shirt. Sorrow flooded my soul at the beautiful image because I knew the backstory —the story behind the picture.

April 2018 heralded a horrific series of events in both of my favorite Canadian provinces —Saskatchewan and Ontario.

In Saskatchewan, the lives of seventeen young-adult junior hockey players abruptly ended when a huge tractor trailer collided with their bus as they traveled to their game in Humboldt, Saskatchewan.

The entire country reeled in silent shock at the news.

No sooner had we come to grips with our grief and started the slow healing process than we were hit with more devastating news.

In a suburb of Toronto, Ontario, more than ten people were deliberately plowed down by a man driving a rented van on the sidewalk.

Amid the carnage, police uncovered baby carriages and wheelchairs. I bemoaned the lives of those innocent people, ages three to ninety-three.

Rage spread across the land. Its contagion spread across me. “Bless the victims, their heartsick families, the perpetrator, and all our saddened souls,” I found myself praying. Still pondering the angst-laden events, I remembered my mother sharing that our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, had experienced even greater pain —spiritual, emotional, physical— more than two thousand years ago.

But there is a glorious, unforgettable backstory.

The scripture reveals that Jesus Christ allowed that agonizing experience because He had a redeeming purpose in mind. He planned to save every person who believed in Him. He endured the pain of the mocking scourges and the vicious blasphemy of the crowd at Calvary for each of us. And I know He would have done it just for wretched, sin-filled me. Thank God for His redeeming backstory.