Restoration = Reconciliation

Psalm 80, verse 3, verserse 7, verse 19 –

Restore us [Reconcile us], O God of Hosts; Show us the light of your countenance and we shal be saved.

To compromise is to meet somewhere toward the middle of two differing perspectives.  To reconcile is to move to the correct position, the right position.  In being reconciled to God, we move to God’s position.  II Corinthians 5: 17-20 calls on us all to be reconciled to God and to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

In the encounter of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and Mary, the mother of Jesus, they each have been reconciled to God through their soon to be born sons; they each have agreed to bear sons that will change the course of the world.  The wife of a priest of the temple of Jerusalem and the wife of a carpenter cooperate with God in bringing Good News to all people.

While we note their wonderful acts of faithfulness, neither was particularly recognized in their own day.  I wonder how we will be remembered, how we will be recognized?

Blessed Mary in the Magnificat proclaimed that God will be found not among the proud, not among the powerful sitting on their thrones, not among the rich.  Rather God will be found among the lowly whom God lifts up, among the hungry who will be filled with good things, and among those who view God with awe and wonder.  God will be found among those who seek to serve.

O hope we will be found, like Elizabeth, like Mary, like all the saints, among those who seek to serve our God and in serving are reconciled to the Holy One of all creation.