"out of the rubble we have made for ourselves"

[hermionesviolin]

       God knows we have problems letting bygones be bygones, in our families, in the workplace, in our small towns. Maybe that's where God has been contending with us, engaging us in the process of conversion. Most of us have had family, mentors, friends, and even enemies who have wrestled with us through the important questions; who have helped us grow up, building something good out of the rubble we have made for ourselves. Like Jacob, maybe some of us have looked for a curse and received a blessing instead. Like Jacob, some of us have found the worst parts of ourselves converted into something better, our small expectations shattered in the presence of God's great abundance, or as the old hymn puts it, "the wideness of God's mercy."
-p.299 (Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Kathleen Norris)