Reconciliation
If you were thinking just how terribly difficult reconciliation is, you are in good company.
CS Lewis wrote that ‘The problem of reconciling human suffering
with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long
as we attach a trivial meaning to the word “love.”’ Any move towards reconciliation
needs to be ‘fuelled’ by loving the person who does us wrong.
And that is so hard, so counter-intuitive. When we have been knocked down, ignored,
wounded without cause, it doesn’t seem fair to leave ourselves vulnerable
yet again by loving ‘them’. Yet we are followers of the innocent one who forgave his enemies.
It’s a lonely place to be, in a world that demands revenge but calls it justice.
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander,
together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:31-32
As we acknowledge the work of Mothers’ Union in Waikato and Taranaki in New Zealand,
let us thank God for their aims that ‘By supporting marriage and family life,
especially through times of adversity, we tackle the most urgent needs
challenging relationships and communities’ and join them in prayer.