As I wrap up a chapter for the new Bible study on loving enemies, I am thinking again about how stories help in the process of reconciliation. When we share stories in community helps us forgive our enemies and embrace “strangers.” Whose story might you need to listen to today?
In the new heaven and new earth, every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group will join together to sing the praises of our Creator and Redeemer. The concept sounds great, but what it means is that one day we will worship with our worst enemies, and we will work side by side with people who wronged us or whom we wronged while living on this earth. Miroslav Volf, writing about the impetus for remembering wrongs for the ultimate hope of reconciliation, writes:
…the irreversibility of time will not chisel away the wrongs we have suffered into the unchangeable reality of our past, the evildoer will not ultimately triumph over the victim, and suffering will not have the final word; God will expose the truth about wrongs, condemn each evil doer and redeem both the repentant perpetrator and their victims, thus reconciling them to God and to each other.
(The End of Memory)
If we are going to live in the forever-kingdom reconciled with those we have harmed and those who have harmed us, we need to open ourselves to the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation in this world. What does it mean to begin now to live forgiveness and love of people who are different from us? We usually recognize our differences with other people pretty easily. Seeing the common core we have as created, sinful, and redeemed humans is sometimes a little harder. Knowing one another’s stories opens our eyes to how similar our hearts are to people we differ deeply with on the surface.
