Stones

I found a fault in my brother and quickly picked up a stone.

Surely the sin should be punished and he should be made to atone.

I reasoned that he should be put in his place sooner than later -

that he should not escape the consequences of his bad behavior.

It didn’t take long for me to make this mental assault on his character.

The rock in my hand was ready to ensure that justice was rightly administered.

How rapidly I turned on him to cast doubt on his intentions,

even when his life’s history was full of honorable mentions.

He had always been generous, gracious and careful to live as he should.

He was really such a fine person, just trying his best to do good.

How swiftly I had jumped to a firm conclusion,

when I may not have had all the facts to make a correct decision.

So, why did I feel he had to make immediate restitution?

Why was I so ready to offer careless condemnation?

Had I given him the benefit of every doubt

and looked at all sides of the situation before casting him out?

Had I extended the necessary amount of empathy,

or found it in my heart to offer requisite mercy?

Should I have put myself in his place for a moment and walked a mile in his shoes?

Should I consider his perspective or the difficulties he may be going through?

Then I remembered this saying from Jesus, the master teacher -

“He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her”.

Suddenly I recalled something in my past -

a grievous error much worse than that which my brother hath.

Who am I to judge when my life is littered with similar indiscretions.

Why was I quick to judge but slow to remember my own transgressions?

If stones had been thrown when my mistakes had been revealed,

I would have been critically wounded instead of healed.

What I needed at the time and also need now,

is deep forgiveness and love that is unconditional.

I realized then that I had done this judging thing before.

It has become such a bad habit - one I need to change and not ignore.

Trying to remove a mote from a brother’s eye is so difficult

when the beam in our eye blinds us to what is most important.

So when we bend down to pick up rocks,

we should take a moment to first consider our faults.

It may not be best to throw rocks when we live in a glass house -

when that which we mete out may in like manner return to us.

January 2023

John 8: 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Matthew 7: 1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast

out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.