Ever merciful and compassionate (Saturday, Week 5, Year 1)

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After munching the forbidden fruit, the Lord God called to the man, and asked, “WHERE ARE YOU?” (Gen. 3:9) When the man heard the sound of God, he quickly hid himself. God could have gone straight to the matter and asked: “What have you done?” But He did not. Rather, He asked, “WHERE ARE YOU?” In asking the question, it implies that God wanted to make the first move towards the man. The question “WHERE ARE YOU?” also implies that the man had moved away from where he was supposed to be to where he should not be.


Sin catapults us from the realm of grace and innocence to the realm of guilt and helplessness. That’s why we “hide” and feel distant from God whenever we sin. When God asked the man, “WHERE ARE YOU?”, He wanted to offer him reconciliation rather than condemnation. Like the merciful and forgiving father in Luke 11, God seeks us out in order to have us back whenever we toe the path of prodigality and sin. He is ever MERCIFUL and COMPASSIONATE.


We see this compassionate and merciful nature of God at work in Jesus in Mark 8:1-10. When He thought of the crowd that had been with Him for three days, He had COMPASSION on them and went on to multiply bread and fish in order to feed a crowd of about four thousand people.


If we really understand how GREATLY MERCIFUL and COMPASSIONATE God is, we will marvel. Often, our sins make us doubt God; and we keep on hiding from His ever-abundant mercy and compassion. A personal encounter with God’s mercy will convince us that God is more loving than we think. When we distance ourselves from Him and find ourselves in the filth of sin, He caringly asks: “WHERE ARE YOU?” By this question, He wants to locate us for RECONCILIATION, not for CONDEMNATION.


Prayer:

We recommend ourselves to Your Mercy and Compassion as we make a daily journey of repentance and reconciliation, Amen!


Have a grace-filled and restful weekend!



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