God is love, the author of love and reconciliation. God is the principle of reconciliation, the source of it. Through Him all things, all persons can be reconciled. Without Him, nothing can be reconciled. We are reconciled and we can reconcile because He chose to reconcile us first.
Reconciliation is healing. We can only begin to be healed when we TRUST. But how does one begin to trust again? In a certain sense, they have to be willing to take chances again, even willing to suffer the consequence of those chances. This is what unconditional love does. It takes risks. It makes one’s self vulnerable. That is the way Christ has loved us, the way he has love me. He took a chance on me. He made Himself vulnerable for me.
What comes before trust? Before we have the capacity to trust again? Acceptance is part of forgiveness. This means acceptance of the hurts and pains. This also means we have accepted that there IS hurt and there IS pain. This also requires humility and love. To love, we have to be able to forget ourselves, to let go of how we see things and trust that there is a plan outside our own, beyond our understanding. So, if we look to understand, we will never understand. If I only want to know “why” I will never be satisfied; I will never have the answers I want to hear. I will never know why. But, if I don’t ask why, I may one day know the answer because I have accepted the fact that I may never know; I have also accepted the situation I am facing, I have stopped the interior rebelling, rejecting or just walking away from or simply not embracing what God has permitted.
