Reconciliation-When Broken Things are Made Good Again

 

I sat across a table from my dad a few days ago. 5 years have passed since we last saw each other. I don’t say that as an indictment towards either of us, but merely for context and out of acknowledgment that our relationship has been strained. 

We caught up briefly, hugged, said, “I love you’s” and parted ways, making promises to do better at staying in each other’s lives. 

Maybe we will and maybe we won’t. Time is the only real teller of truth. But I do know this, our intentions are good, and that, I can make peace with, even if we fail once again at this whole messy and complicated human relationship thing. 

Can I share something that feels like one of the greatest truths I’ve ever known? 

It’s this: God’s heart is ALWAYS for reconciliation. 

Don’t be mistaken. I don’t mean in the sense of returning or continuing in relationships that are destructive or abusive in nature. Not what I’m talking about here. 

I mean this, when someone has inflicted injury in some way, when they’ve failed in their humanity, made promises they couldn’t keep, let you down, failed to live up to who you thought they should be or committed some act that you deem unforgivable... 

When and if that person extends the olive branch of peace towards you, I don’t think you have to pray about what God would have you do in that situation. Because God would take it. 

And taking it doesn’t mean you’re going to start hanging out every weekend or ever. It simply means you give them a “safe passage through your mind,” as a poet, Buddy Wakefield, once said (paraphrased). 

The word “reconcile” comes from a Latin form of the word that means, “to make good again.” 

Reconciliation-when broken things are “made good again.” There’s something about those moments when the world feels as it should be for a brief moment in time. 

I’m not saying it’s easy. I just think if God is in the business of reconciling all of humanity to Himself, maybe we should be too. If we are made in His image, maybe when people are reconciled to each other, they are drawn closer to Him too.

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