It seems like yesterday when at Wrigley, Tennessee I was involved in a fight at L. A. Miller field. I couldn’t have been more than 11 or 12. I got some good licks in when the bigger got the better of me and clipped my nose with a wide right. I stopped fighting and let the blood pour. That’s when I heard her. She was screaming, “You two stop!” She was a block over when she heard the commotion of the fighting. She was running as fast as her legs could carry. Granny Sullivan has a heart of gold and the courage of a lion. She was there in a flash cleaning the blood off my face. What saved me from a belt to the backside was I was defending myself. If I had started it I would have gotten another by her, no doubt.

I’ve just returned from the nursing home where Cora Mae Sullivan is staying. She has Alzheimer’s disease. She called me by name. I hugged her close and told her I loved her. She has had a rough life. She raised 4 boys and 2 girls by herself. Her husband, my Grandpa, died on his way back from Detroit in 1949. My Dad was 5 years old. Granny told me a story a few months ago about Dad riding Grandpa Sullivan’s foot as he walked up the road to the house from Wrigley plant. I can’t imagine how it was on them. They didn’t have welfare or food stamps. It took grit and guts to survive. I’m not sure how many practiced this, “Jam 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visitthe fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

This post was for me to reflect on family and how dear they are. Lord give me an ounce of the determination that my ancestors had!

When I think of mercy I picture a woman with tears at Jesus’ feet. Streaming down her cheeks are the burdens of a broken heart. Splashing to the dusty ground and creating instant marks of mercy. This world witnesses each day its fair share of injustice. People cry for justice while someone quietly prays for mercy. Those prayers are not always heard. They direct them to a nameless faceless figure who is out to punish them. Especially after being caught. When mercy is shown it is only after someone who has lost all hope begins to repent and ask for forgiveness. You can’t recieve forgiveness unless you ask. Mercy is the response of the asking.

You’ve witnessed judgement, perhaps even sat in the seat and slapped the gavel as a final word was said. If you’ve seen the load of wrongs and insults against God I have carried you would have slammed the gavel through the desk. Would I deserve it? Yes. However, I’ve already been judged. The eyes of the just Judge gazed at my pitiful state and spoke words of hope, healing, yes… mercy. He freed me of my sin and wiped the shame from my face. Jesus our Lord made a statement, “Who is fogiven much loves much.”

I love Him because He first loved me and forgave me of my rotteness and sin! Thank you Jesus!