Once we are reconciled to God, we become part of God’s ministry of reconciliation. The best way we can continually fill the hole in the heart of God and the holes in our own hearts is to reconcile with one another. Not just when it’s easy, but most especially when it’s hard, even when it seems impossible.
Heaven and earth are full of such invisible and illuminating glories. I believe that’s true, and I have trouble remembering that I believe that.
Maybe love is the source of all true and enduring forms of justice because love cares so deeply for what is good in its beloved that it can’t look away when that goodness is denied or destroyed.
Jesus removed whatever demon this unclean spirit was. He did so through the authority of his speech, his language. But he removed a perhaps larger demon at the same time. He removed the stigma this man felt. It was as if Jesus erased the scarlet U for the unclean spirit this man felt on his forehead.