Reconciliation

This is a part of forgiveness but quite a bit different. While forgiveness is giving up my right to strike back, reconciliation is the restoration of the relationship. I can easily forgive someone whom I barely know and my never see again, but reconciliation takes a whole different level of forgiveness – it’s about restoration of the relationship that was wounded or broken.

Hosea was instructed to pursue reconciliation with his prostitute wife. Check this out…

The Lord said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites….

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver (about 6 ounces) and about a homer and a lethek (probably about 10 bushels) of barley. 3 Then I told her, ‘You are to live with me for many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.’ (Hosea 3:1a-3 NIV)

Reconciliation is often a process more than an event. Forgiveness is an event that starts the healing process of the wounded person. Reconciliation often follows forgiveness and to me this is “heavier lifting” than forgiveness. Forgiveness is more passive and reconciliation is more active. I have forgiven people for hurting me and never had to deal with them again. I have forgiven others who’ve harmed me and they want a continued relationship. The latter is much harder.

The Lord is the model for me in both forgiveness and reconciliation. He forgives completely and he restores or reconciles me to Him. I believe the reason I understand forgiveness and reconciliation is because I understand just how much He loves me, forgives me and welcomes me “home” again and again. That depth of love is hard for me to wrap my head around. I believe He calls me to love, forgive and restore just like Him.

Pressing On!

Dwayne