Ezekiel 11:17-24

Ezekiel 11:17-24
New International Version (NIV)

  The German word 'schadenfreude' means taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune.  We look upon our enemies who fall upon hard times and we find a secret joy in it.  When we see those we oppose doing well, we often cross our fingers and hope that they'll get what we think is coming to them.  It's a human desire for revenge -- and often, when someone has received their just desserts, we hope they stay in whatever pit they have fallen into.  We hope their despair becomes permanent.
  It makes it all the more amazing to think about the love, grace and forgiveness that is available in God.  The Israelites are banished to captivity, but God doesn't forget about them -- God gathers them back, like a mother hen gathering her chicks, like a faithful teacher gathering her students.  God reaches out and restores our hearts, offering us a new spirit, one of hope and love and patience and kindness, which can be very different than the true condition of our hearts.  God does not forget us in our trials, whether they are self-imposed or not, but rather reaches out, offers grace, and points to a new and wondrous future.