A warm Saturday summer afternoon at home with the family was interrupted by a sudden piercing scream from my three-year old daughter.

As my wife was washing some dishes, Kelly had run into the kitchen at her usual wide-open-throttle pace.  She slipped on the floor and caught her bare foot in between the lower part of the cabinets and the floor as she fell.  Her little toe went in one direction and the rest of her went in another.  The toe was badly out of position and looked to be dislocated or maybe broken.

Off to the hospital we went.  After a short while her screaming finally stopped.  We waited in the E.R. for the doctor to check her out.  He agreed, with just a short look, that it wasn't good.  He sent us to x-ray.

When the results came back, they showed her little toe was broken in one place and dislocated in another.  The break would just need to be taped up.  But the dislocated part had to be put back into place.

After sitting and waiting awhile longer we were really exhausted.  The doctor and an assistant finally came to get her fixed up.  They laid her down on a table and gave her a shot in the already tender toe that brought a scream I'll never forget.

After a short wait the doctor grabbed her little toe and pulled on it to move it back into position.  I thought I was dying as she again screamed in severe pain.  The numbing needle obviously had very little effect.

The doctor then gave her a second shot that hurt her as badly as the first.  My precious little girl looked at me and wondered how her Daddy could let these people do this to her.  At that point I was sobbing almost as much as she was.

The doctor again pulled the toe to move it with the same result - another incredible scream.  When the third needle and scream came, I just couldn't take it any longer.  I went out into the hallway and fell to my knees.  I have never in my life felt pain like that and hope and pray that I never will again.  It was, without a doubt, the most helpless I have ever felt.

My daughter, who means so much to me, was in incredible pain; yet there was nothing I could do to help her.  I would have done anything to take that pain away from my child if it was possible.

I began to pray to God and ask for Him to help her.  Only He could.  Her Mommy and Daddy could do nothing.

Please remember that this was only her little toe and far from a life or death situation. Suddenly I began to realize just how much God loves me.  I am at the point where I am willing to do anything to stop the pain that my child is feeling, but can't do a thing but to seek God.

Then I realized just how much God must have suffered watching the very people whom He was trying to save as they humiliated and crucified His only Son.  He could have stopped it, but He didn't.

He endured that pain so that you and I can have eternal life through Christ's suffering and death.

I would have done anything to help my child with something as minor as a broken toe.  I cannot even begin to imagine the price that was paid for my salvation.

You see I've been saved since I was five years old.  It took until my early thirties and the experience of watching my own child's suffering for me to realize how tremendous the price was that had been paid.  Why did it take me so long to understand that something so spectacular had been done?  "Thank you" just doesn't seem to be enough.

Three days later Kelly was running around the house like nothing had happened.  In those same three days I began to realize that something very special had happened.