Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.
Genesis 33:10 (ESV)
Father God, my soul is so touched this morning by the power of reconciliation and forgiveness, and how it transforms the soul. The last Jacob saw his brother Esau was plotting to kill him (Genesis 27:41). Yet You did something over the course of time to soften the heart of Esau so much so that when he saw Jacob he ran to meet him, hugged him, kissed him, and wept (Genesis 33:4)! Lord, this was only the second time in Scriptures where we are told that these two touched, the first being Jacob clinching the heal of his brother Esau! What began as a striving for position became, by Your glorious work, an embracing in love! In the former it was initiated by Jacob. In the latter by Esau. We saw what You did to the heart of Jacob to soften him and move him from his conniving ways. But what You did to Esau was silent, quiet, and behind the scenes.
Isn’t that how You work in our lives? We see how You are moving in us to change our stony hearts into hearts of flesh, to transform our broken lives into redeemed existences. And it is wonderful to experience. But it is something quite different when we become the recipient of that same work in the lives of others towards us, when You mysteriously and miraculously transform them, so much so that we don’t recognize them! When we see how You move on them to forgive us for what we have done to them, paving the path for us to be reconciled, realizing that it wasn’t our gifts or apologies but Your work both in us and in them, it blows our minds! This is what the Christian life looks like, showered in love and forgiveness towards others because we have been the recipient of that and more from You! Hallelujah!
Today, please continue Your work in my heart and the hearts of those around me. If I have hurt them, show me, convict me, and convince me to show evidence of my repentance (Revelation 2:5). Help me to love and forgive them even as I have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32). But most importantly continue to remind me to love them deeply and unconditionally even as I have been loved eternally without condition (John 13:34-35), for therein it will cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.