Typically,
my wife Sara does not have favourites. She
does not have a favourite colour, name or place. She likes too many things for
too many reasons
to have one favourite.
Shockingly,
though, she does have a favourite mug.
It was made by a Saskatchewan potter.
In fact, Sara met this woman at an art show and told her
how much she
liked her work and the woman gave her this mug for free! It was beautiful and Sara
treasured it.
Last
Friday
night, Sara made some tea for me and, for some reason, she put it
in her special
mug. I was reading at the
time, so I
took a sip and put the mug back on the shelf.
Then I took another sip and put the mug on the shelf. I took another sip and I did
not quite get it
back on the shelf. As soon
as I let go,
the mug tipped over. I
tried to grab it,
but it was too late. Sara’s
favourite
mug, one of the only possessions that she really cares about,
crashed to the
floor and broke in three huge pieces.
I
waited. I braced myself. Yet, to my surprise, there
was no speech and
no anger. Nothing! All she said was, “You are
more important
than some mug!” She had
every right to
yell, scream and be upset, but she chose to be merciful.
Everyone
likes justice when they are right, but we love mercy when we need
it.
Ephesians
2:4 describes God as being “Rich in mercy”. Heavenly wisdom is, “full of
mercy” (James 3:17). 1 Peter
1:3 tells us that God offers new life because of his great mercy.
To
be
clear, I am not encouraging you to be lazy, sloppy or careless
about your spiritual
life. All I am saying is
that if we are
ever going to be anything like God and represent him well, mercy
must be a
large part of our makeup.
Mercy
is a powerful tool for changing the situations that we are in and
making them
better.
Mercy
matters.
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