International Justice Mission: celebrating justice

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...punishment of perpetrators, however lawful, is never meant to be our final action in their lives. We show godly love toward a perpetrator by restraining him or her from harming others, but also by praying for their reconciliation with their Maker. Perpetrators of even the most violent, dark crimes still bear the image of God and are so loved by him that God sent his Son to die for them as well.  

Gary Haugen

I've never seen a video on social justice that shows the legal conviction of people who exact harm and injustice on people's lives - and celebrates that! Perhaps my idea of social justice has been romantic. 

Sure, I grieve for people who suffer unjustly and I'm angry at people who exact such harm on others (and themselves). I dream of the oppressed being free, but I have not really thought about the need to also free the oppressors...from the destruction they are bringing.

not much longer to go

Parents rarely let go of children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003) 
Mitch Albom

A few friends who read my posts said they did not understand what I meant when I first wrote about us willfully severing ourselves from our parents' lives two years ago.

And now Mitch Albom reminds me of the same thing again. My parents are in their late 50s and early 60s. There's not much longer of life now to go, unless they would return to Jesus...and rest.

mothers' day

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 

The Great YHWH (in Isaiah 49: 15)

Even if mothers lose their memory in trauma or dementia, and even when mothers cease to love us unfailingly and unconditionally, the Lord of the heavens and earth will not forget us.

I know that this will be important when I join many adults as orphans after their parents leave in disease and old age.

don't you worry

Adapted from Lucy Rose's Don't You Worry