Mother Father, who are we that you should forgive us? Who are we, that we not forgive each other? Who indeed, am I, to be forgiven? Yet you do not forget us.

When the passion we have about any injustice, any personal affront, any shortsighted decision, every bias, every historical atrocity, when that passion burns with the righteous intensity of judgment, we cast ourselves into the fire of our own igniting. But you say no to this. It is easy to be right, or better – or think we are.

Do you not love as dearly as us the people we hate? Do you not hold us all as a mother holds all her children? This world needs your open heart. Would that we be protected from the lies, pain we deal upon each other. Would that there be no injustice, no need to forgive!

By your amazing, outrageous grace, grant us the confidence of your strength, free us from the judgment we cast upon each other, guide us to an open heart, full of the wisdom that does not forget, and a love that overflows with the certainty of the dawning day, secure in the eternity of your unending grace. Amen.

(Thanks to Drew C.! Reprinted with permission)