“Because of the tender mercy of our God …”
- from Luke 1:78
 
Today we want to circle around this beautiful turn of phrase. Each word hums with joy.
 
“Our God” has a personal connection with us. He allows us to identify ourselves with him. God in all his majesty and grandeur allows us to say: “We’re with him!” He doesn’t hide from us or pretend not to know us. He embraces us and call us his family.
 
And our God shows us “mercy.” He doesn’t base our future exclusively on our past. He jumps in and gets to work to create a new story for us. God generously gives us goodness that we could never earn, goodness we can’t even fully fathom.
 
And this mercy is given to us in a “tender” way. He doesn’t hammer us or condescend to us or twist our arms. God’s surprising tenderness changes how we view both him and ourselves. He isn’t a general barking orders at us and we aren’t low-level employees slaving away in his factory. Kindness, gentleness, tenderness.
 
And this tender mercy of our God is intimately connected with God’s joyous creation of salvation and redemption and the dawning of the rising of the sun. God’s tender mercy stands above and behind and beneath everything else in Zechariah’s prophetic words to his son. The “Because of” in today’s passage links God’s tender mercy to the rest of our life with God.
 
Taking a word or phrase like this and reflecting on it and meditating on it (like we did right here) can be a great spiritual discipline. Would you take a moment today to read Luke 1:68-79 (our passage for the week), pick a phrase, and reflect on it until you feel like you’ve gotten some insight into God, your community, or your relationship with both of these?