Photo by Asim Z Kodappana on Unsplash

From whence comes the sense that we have a mandate to be harsh with fainting souls?

The bright beams of our Father's mercy contrast with the dark frowns our our judgmental stares.

The smile of God is more often a proactive greeting of grace than a reactive indicator of our laudable actions.

God is irrationally and passionately on your side and calling you into full participation in His own mission and joy.

While the world drags you down, God lifts you up.

It is the call of pure love. It does not negate judgment; it explains it as an act of love, God being against all that is against His love for us.

It does not negate discipline, for any parent disciplines his or her children out of love.

It does not negate the sorrow or anger of God for honesty in emotion is essential to intimacy in a love relationship.

It negates nothing of truth but frames it in the context of a smile of love that always emerges,

It is the smile of love, the loving embrace, the welcoming look that draws us closer.

It is God's face shining upon us!

Restore us, O God;
    make your face shine on us,
    that we may be saved.

How long, Lord God Almighty,
    will your anger smolder
    against the prayers of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears;
    you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors,
    and our enemies mock us.

Restore us, God Almighty;
    make your face shine on us,
    that we may be saved.

You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it,
    and it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches.
Its branches reached as far as the Sea,
    its shoots as far as the River.

Why have you broken down its walls
    so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
Boars from the forest ravage it,
    and insects from the fields feed on it.
Return to us, God Almighty!
    Look down from heaven and see!
Watch over this vine,
    the root your right hand has planted,
    the son you have raised up for yourself.

Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire;
    at your rebuke your people perish.
Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
    the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
Then we will not turn away from you;
    revive us, and we will call on your name.