“Mommy, do you know there is a song with my name in it?” Mercy asked me on Monday.
“Can you sing it for me?” I replied.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases…his Mercy never comes to an end…they are new every morning…new every morning…great is thy faithfulness.”
“That’s beautiful! Where did you learn that song, kiddo?” I responded.
“Daddy sings it to me at night,” she answered proudly.
That same day I had spent a long time talking with a close friend who lost someone very dear to her in a tragic accident on New Year’s Day. We spoke of pain and loss and the incomprehensibility of so much of it. How difficult it can be to really grasp what mercy is. God’s activity, his faithfulness in our lives, in the lives of those we love; His presence in our communities and cities and in our world: these things can be so hidden and can look so radically different from how we imagine them. And our hopes can be more than frustrated: they can be destroyed. And yet we receive from God this promise of mercy, not as a one-time gift but as this persistent, always-present, renewed act the Lord of the universe daily extends to us.
Mercy and mystery.
Sovereignty and suffering.
Incarnation and crucifixion.
Do we dare draw near to the unceasing, steadfast love of the Lord?