Feeling God’s mercy

There was a time when I thought I was completely at the mercy of my body. I’d just had a miscarriage and felt great pain and devastating loss. But this experience soon became a turning point in my understanding of God. 

For a few months before the miscarriage, the word mercy repeatedly stood out to me during my study of the Bible. I had been reading the Bible closely with an open heart, observing what words, verses, and stories resonated with me and comparing those to the thoughts and motivations I was observing in my life. When I noticed any contrast between what the Bible tells me about God as the source of all good and any thoughts that would oppose this spiritual understanding, I knew those thoughts needed reformation. So, when references to God’s mercy kept standing out to me, I took note. 

I realized how little I knew about what the spiritual thinkers in the Bible learned of God’s mercy in their experiences. Take this Psalm, for example: “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses; for they have been ever of old” (Psalms 25:6). God’s mercies are tender and have always been at hand. Pair that understanding of God with the opening line of the prayer Christ Jesus gave his followers: “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9) and it’s clear that God, divine Love—our divine Parent and the source of all love—tenderly cares for us as His children no matter what.