Over the years many wonderful children in the library club helped with routine tasks. They enjoyed rewards for service and had fun working together – except for two boys who joined one school term. They quarreled every time they came, and I was ready to ask them to leave if they couldn’t get along. I don’t recall how we solved the problem, but I haven’t forgotten the Holy Spirit revealing that I needed to thank the Lord that He didn’t ask His children to stop coming around when we persist in disagreeing. Those two boys were a poignant reminder of the sin rooted deep within and of the mercy the Lord extends to us all.


Morning by morning, from one year to the next, the Lord’s compassion is renewed to us. It stretches beyond the limits of human love, forgiving again and again. By God’s grace instead of judging and condemning, a single act of mercy may be what is needed to secure a fellow traveler who might otherwise despair. After all, Jesus’ great act of mercy at the cross is what saves you and me today.