We are not 'sinners'! We are imperfect but eternally beloved children of God.
God knows and understands everything about us,
the circumstances of our lives,
our choices, both good and bad,
and loves us anyway, even when we don't love ourselves.
I believe that anyone who has children and knows what it is to love them, no matter what should understand and trust this belief.
''The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven....''
The trouble is we keep putting our umbrellas up.
What are those umbrellas; our pride, our vanity;
our self-denial and self-deception. The list goes on.
We need to turn our faces to the gentle rain of the love and mercy of God and allow it to wash away our guilt as we put right what is wrong and turn to follow God's path.
At church this morning, our priest spoke about Jesus's words to the Scribes and Pharisees on 'rule-keeping' and hypocrisy and how we can have a tendency to give the bare minimum.
Cain's and Abel's gifts to God came into my mind; Cain with ''some of his produce'' and Abel with the best lamb of his flock.
Why God asks for our best must be of importance here. God does not need our best gifts but knows that our giving of them is best for us.
When we give 'second best', it is we ourselves who are short-changed. We circumcise our hearts and close our minds.
To give of our best to God, to others, to life, is to open our minds and hearts to generosity of spirit which, in return, is reflected and radiated backwards to us and is truly life-enhancing.
From a very early age, when I first heard of the now outdated concept of 'Limbo', a place where unborn or unbaptised babies went if they died, a place of happiness but not with God, I absolutely knew that couldn't be true. The God I believed in would never do such a thing.
It never was an article of faith and, thank goodness, that is now recognised and acknowledged.
Recently, I had an image of the souls of the little ones flying up to heaven to be held in the loving arms of Jesus and his mother. As if they wouldn't go straight to God
Now let's get this right from the start; no one, but no one, is born 'wicked.'
Well, to be precise, it probably should be 'conceived' rather than 'born' because I've read and heard - and believe - that the circumstances and choices of both parents, even before conception can affect the development of their unborn child during pregnancy.
So how do our circumstances and choices come into play?
Well, the next thing to get straight is that no one is born into a perfect family. There's no such thing. In fact, I've often been tempted to say that the dysfunctional family is the norm - and that's including my own - the growing-up one, that is.
That is in no way a criticism and is meant to be a consolation to those of us who feel we've made many a mistake in our parental efforts. And maybe 'dysfunctional' is overstating the case or at least exaggerating it.
Those factors plus all the other situations we've found ourselves in over the years make up the 'circumstances' aspect of our lives.
And as to choices, which of us hasn't made one or two - or many more - mistakes in that area in his or her life? I know I have.
So that hotch-potch jigsaw makes up the backdrop of our lives and goes a long to explaining how we navigate the landscape we find ourselves in.
When we are tempted to call one another 'wicked', aloud - or in our heads, maybe we should remember the famous/infamous words of Pope Francis when questioned by journalists about his views on moral issues. ''Who am I to judge?''
Who indeed am I or are we to judge? Possibly not!!
Is the measure of the hurt felt
a measure of the hurt caused?
I don't know. It came into my mind so I just share it.
It might be rubbish.
I've just had some thoughts about this. One of the things I think God wants is for all of us to believe in ourselves; not in a big-headed way but just thinking that we're ok.
This started because I spent the morning worrying about some people who have made it evident that I'm not ok. After a good pep-talk with a friend, I happened to have a great conversation with someone who's a lot younger than I am but a good friend who I genuinely feel likes me a lot, followed by some textings with people who I know think I'm ok and I feel so much better.
If like me, you're easily discouraged, self-doubting and hypercritical of yourself, maybe you and I should reason, ''I think they're ok people and if they think I'm ok, then I must be ok-ish at the very least!''
And as for those who don't, what do I really think of them? Are they really ok? Well if they don't think I am, maybe they aren't ok so should I be bothered about what they think of me? Almost certainly not!!
