All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5.18)

Have you ever experienced reconciliation? True, healthy restoration of relationship with a loved one. Anyone who has felt the sting of a dissolved relationship knows the pain that takes its place. There we meet Pain and his companion, Longing, when someone we once called friend has now become a non-friend, or worse, an enemy. A loved one we once called brother or sister, father or mother now with an added prefixed word: estranged. The pain and loneliness is immense. That person occupied a space in our heart, the deepest places of our affection. Reconciliation seems impossible.

We carry the weight of failed relationships heavily, but when we recognize that in some situations we were the cause and the isolation can become unbearable. The guilt of our own self destructions makes reconciliation impossible. We long for restoration but believe nothing can be done.

And this is where Jesus steps in. Not only as our reconciler but as our model of genuine reconciliation. While we were still far from God, enemies of His holiness, Jesus died for us. He endured our death so that we might live. We are not only restored to a relationship impossible to us, we can rejoice that we have been reconciled to God, our Creator, our eternal Father who loves us. And in the reconciling love of Christ we find our calling as followers of Jesus, to be reconcilers too. We are ambassadors of Christ’s restoring good news. We are missionaries who proclaim the message of reconciliation.

Jesus, as I experience your reconciling love, give me strength and wisdom to carry that message of reconciliation to the hurting (especially loved ones I’ve hurt) in the world.