Article August 29, 2005 Issue

The power of divine mercy

By Donna Harrison Haynes

EVERY HEART YEARNS for the touch of God's love, to feel His mercy. It is our God-given right to know this mercy, which brings us blessings, forgiveness, and restoration. And we don't have to wait for a later time or some future event to be worthy of God's mercy. We have an immediate and forever connection with the compassion of our divine Parent, whose love lifts us out of the belief that we come from a mistake-making past.

God, in His merciful love, sees only our goodness. As a human quality, mercy represents people loving each other as God loves them, through kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Although mercy is a noun, I've come to think of God's mercy as an action verb: the action of Love (a name for God) governing the universe and man.

In all the details of our life, mercy surrounds us like the arms of a loving, divine Parent. We don't make God's mercy come to us. We live in it every moment. The effects of hard experiences, of unforgiving harshness or bitterness, dissolve from view as we let ourselves accept the great mercy God has for us. The Bible says, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27). I think of those divine "arms" as God's love, as His mercy, for each of us.