As we made plans to buy our house my dad remarked that we’d probably end up overlooking our view given that we’d see it day after day. “Soon,” he said, “you’ll take that view for granted, due to its familiarity.” Thankfully, this hasn’t happened yet and I am daily awestruck by the beauty (like this sunrise) right outside my window.
God’s mercy can become easily overlooked too, I think. Unlike virtues such as grace and love and power, mercy is one of God’s quieter aspects. We don’t think of it often.
This week I had an opportunity to discipline my son for a very overt offense, an offense that he KNEW deserved harsh consequence considering how many times he’d gotten in trouble for doing the same exact thing. He knew why it was wrong, how it hurts people (because sin always hurts someone) and how much we wanted him to stop. But he did the thing anyway and was caught.
I know that the Holy Spirit doesn’t always speak to us in clear tones – but I will tell you, that morning, as I watched my son get defiant and defensive and desperate to get the discipline handed out I heard the spirit tell me to offer mercy. So I did. I gave my son a gift (a sausage biscuit, because to my nine year old, food = love : ) that he didn’t deserve and a hug and a kiss when that wasn’t what he was expecting. I told him that I was so sad to see him choose the wrong path but that my love didn’t hinge on his behavior. Just like God’s love for me as his child doesn’t depend on my actions. Even on days when I knowingly make the wrong choice, say the wrong thing, think the wrong thought, and do the wrong action, God shows me mercy. Food, shelter, friends, family, and new mornings where I am welcomed back, like the prodigal son, to his arms.
After being handed the sausage biscuit, my sweet boy paused for a few seconds and then started to cry big, guilty tears. An apology came tumbling out as he simultaneously ate his breakfast sandwich. I mean, priorities : )
There are certainly right times for chastisement and discipline. Consequences for bad choices. But sometimes we forget to offer mercy to the people around us. Mercy becomes overlooked for others because maybe we overlook God’s strong mercy in our own lives.
Sometimes it takes a sunrise to startle me out of my forgetting and remind me of things I know to be true. Sometimes, like a sausage biscuit to a boy, God’s mercy is handed to me when I least deserve it…and His mercy is more.
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