Hoping for Justice
After nearly a year, it still hurt.
It still woke me at night - that feeling of loss, of loneliness, of heartbreak. I carried it on my sleeve and it influenced all my relationships. I guess that’s what happens when you talk of forever, of love, of another… only to have it end.
She had moved on, I had not. Though I could say convincingly to others that I wished her well, deep down I was waiting for her to get hers - to experience the pain, the hurt, the brokenness that I felt. I longed for things to be made right, for the pain to make sense. I cried. I cried out for understanding. I cried out for justice.
But was it truly justice I longed for?
In the midst of this, a caring mentor reminded me of a simple truth - that when we are wronged, we long for justice, but when we have wronged we long for mercy. Often when we speak of justice, what we are really speaking of is punishment - pain and wrath for another.
Yet a love so full of justice that bleeds grace has been extended towards us. This advent season, as we eagerly look toward a child, we hear not a cry for justice but only the true cry of mercy. In this infant Christ - His cry is for us and to us – is showing and inviting us into real justice, and that is everlasting mercy.
From: My reflection found in the “Advent & Christmas” iBooks by Liberti Church and Restoration Living.