...make restitution

from the best

in his own field

and in his own vineyard.

            Exodus 22. 5

(Whatever it takes

to make it right again.

It was not a common

      cultural expectation

      or response,

but indeed countercultural,

found only in the Hebrew scriptures,

a mandate for how to live

     in this broken world.

The Hebrew word

for restitution is shalom:

to make peace,

to be at peace,

to live in peace

          and completion,

to make it whole and good,

to restore,

to make amends,

to make it right again.)

O LORD,

Show us Your way

through the tempest,

whether our doing

   or another's transgression.

It does not matter

   who is at fault,

but help us to make it right,

not just to fill in the gaps,

but make our

   relationships right again.

Bring Your grace to this

    troubling situation.

Forgiveness does not say

a transgression does not

matter or graded on a curve

-- no matter what it is.

But forgiveness says

    I love you anyway,

the deepest kind of love,

the way of restoration

for both sides

          of the equation.