Yesterday I read what I realize today is the perfect segue between God's unconditional love for us, and #2 in my Top Ten: the fact that God is always about redeeming, restoring, & reconciling.
"What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives. The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created.
"Paul's letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world. He begins with an exuberant exploration of what Christians believe about God, and then, like a surgeon skillfully setting a compound fracture, "sets" this belief in God into our behavior before God so that the bones - belief and behavior - knit together and heal.
"…[Paul] ranges widely, from heaven to earth and back again, showing how Jesus, the Messiah, is eternally and tirelessly bringing everything and everyone together. He also shows us that in addition to having this work done in and for us, we are participants in this most urgent work. Now that we know what is going on, that the energy of reconciliation is the dynamo at the heart of the universe (underscore mine), it is imperative that we join in vigorously and perseveringly, convinced that every detail in our lives contributes (or not) to what Paul describes as God's plan worked out by Christ, "a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth."" - Eugene H. Peterson, The Message, Intro to Ephesians, page 2122
Reconciliation. Going from far apart to close together, war to peace. It is God's heart, always… not only between us and Him, but in every human relationship.
Incidentally, the book of Ephesians gives a distilled version of God at work. If you don't have a Bible, you can read it here. (I've linked the first chapter of six - just click the right-facing arrow at the bottom of the page to continue on with subsequent chapters.)
