A DUSTING OF LOVE AND A DOOR OF HOPE

Snow keeps coming, like a never ending rinse cycle on our muddy streets and sidewalks. I like to think love is like that, and mercy and grace. "Life is messy," says a priest friend of mine; we find ourselves knee deep in messy emotions, reactions, relationships and families. How do we keep loving? We let mercy fall on us every morning.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning." Lamentations 3:22, 23 ESV God's love and daily mercy give us the grace to keep covering sin and keep going on. What do I mean?

Peter tells us, "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sin." 1 Peter 4:7 Ever been deeply hurt by someone? Only a different kind of love can help us to keep loving, keep trying, keep being patient when our own resources have run dry. We cannot do this on our own; our response is retaliation, self-defense (or defense mechanisms) but there is another way.

Instead of becoming a "doormat" where others walk all over us, wound us or take advantage of us, we can become a doorway. In Ireland's Saint Patrick's Cathedral there is a door of reconciliation; as I stood before it I imagined the feud, the fighting, the hating one another with no hope of resolution in sight.  When we find our sanctuary in God's love, when we are reconciled to God's love for us, we're able to reconcile to others. Courage and a deep longing for peace accompany the daring risk of reaching out in love.

Is love covering the stormy relationships in your life?

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"Dear friends, since God so loved us we also ought to love one another...And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God."

1 John 4:11, 16