Colossians 3:13

Reflection

"Bear with one another" comes before forgiveness. To bear with is to endure difference. Keeping someone close even without fully understanding them becomes the soil of forgiveness.

Here too the standard is "as the Lord forgave you." By human arithmetic there is an end, but measured by the forgiveness received, that end stretches. The generosity I received widens the limits of my own.

When a grievance settles in the heart, before it grows, recall bearing with first. Forgiveness is not a single event but a direction chosen anew each day.