All Else is Forgiveness
Twas 3:00 a.m. Nothing like the present to take pause in the pre-dawn hours. It wasn’t my inability to sleep that awoke me but rather the flub-dub of my stomach.
As I hunkered down within the confines of my chair, I allowed the newly purchased comforter to comfort me. Picking up a nearby journal, I read the words before me.
“Receive My love for all else is merely forgiveness.”
I hadn’t ever thought of life quite like that, but truth-be-told, this was good stuff.
It made sense because perfect love comes from the Father. James 1:17 penned it well. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
First John 1:5 clarifies. “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
Truth can be like a bumper sticker. It’s fun to read the quotes. However, what one does with it is another story. How do we put faith on and not only wear, but live it? The line, “Receive My love for all else is forgiveness,” resonated and the words were sheer gift as I sat into the wee hours of the morning and pondered them. With nowhere to go, I allowed them to wash over.
The meaning of part of it was obvious. He is perfect, and nobody else in this world is. Our best attempt at love will always fall short. If we expect perfection from those who are attempting to love us, or perfection from ourselves who are trying desperately to give it, we will not only be disappointed, but will need to forgive at those feeble attempts that fall short. We are, after all, mere mortals.
Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and family members all fall short. Friends will, we will, and our neighbors will. To expect anything but imperfection would be insanity. Roman 3:23 summarizes this. “For ALL have not only sinned but fallen short of the glory of God.”
It’s not that we cannot attempt to love others as best we can. It’s just that it’s never going to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect and thus there has to be wiggle room for the disappointment of not being loved the way we think we need to be by others here on earth.
And so we pray as He taught us to. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matt. 6:12). In other words, forgive us for not loving others perfectly and help us to forgive those who don’t love us perfectly in return.
When we confess our inability to love as we ought, we will free up space to not only receive love from Our Father, but be able to forgive those who are trying their best to love us no matter how imperfect that may be and actually receive their imperfect love with compassionate grace. Amen.
