What was harder: Creating Us or Redeeming Us?
Profound words written almost a thousand years ago by Bernard of Clairvaux:
"I owe all that I am to Him who made me, but how can I pay my debt to Him who redeemed me?
Creation was not so vast a work as Redemption, for it is written of man and things that were made, 'He spoke the word and they were made' (Psalm 148:5).
But to redeem that creation that sprang into being at His word, how much He spake, what wonders He wrought, what hardships He endured, what shames He suffered!
In the first Creation He gave me the gift of myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self I had lost.
Created first and then restored, I owe Him myself twice over in return for myself.
But what have I to offer Him for the gift of Himself? Could I multiply myself a thousand-fold and then give Him my all -- what would that be in comparison with God?
[In creating me He gave me the gift of myself....in Redeeming me He gave me the gift of Himself --- Wow!]
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