Words, for their full meaning, depend upon their source — the person who speaks them. Whatever a good word means as used by a good person, it means infinitely more as used by God.
And the feeling or thought expressed by that word takes higher and higher forms in us as we become capable of understanding him — that is, as we become like him.
When we understand, we become like Him. 🙏
MacDonald reveals something about the nature of understanding itself: to truly understand God's words is to be transformed by them. The understanding is not intellectual — it is ontological. The soul that comprehends a word of God does not merely add information to a database. She becomes more like the One who spoke it. The understanding and the becoming are the same act. This is why the morning devotion changes the one who reads — the words do not just inform. They transform.
For the Divine creates the Human, and has the creative power beyond the Human.
It is the divine forgiveness which, originating itself, creates our forgiveness, and therefore can do so much more. It can take up all our wrongs, small and great, with their righteous attendance of griefs and sorrows, and carry them away from between our God and us.
MacDonald traces forgiveness back to its origin — and the origin is not the human heart. The divine forgiveness creates our forgiveness. We do not forgive first and then receive God's forgiveness as a reward. God forgives first — and His forgiveness creates in us the capacity to forgive. The human forgiveness is the offspring of the divine. The child of the parent. The stream from the fountain. Murray said God is the prime mover of surrender. MacDonald says God is the prime mover of forgiveness. The source is always Him.
Christ is God's Forgiveness.
Although God is so much more to us, and comes so much nearer to us, than any father can be or come, yet fatherhood is the highest step of the human stairway from which our understanding can see him far off, and where our hearts can first know that he is near — even within us.
MacDonald names fatherhood as the highest rung of the human ladder — the metaphor that reaches closest to the reality of God. Not because fatherhood contains all of God. Because it is the nearest the human heart can come to comprehending what God is. The father who loves the child imperfectly points toward the Father who loves perfectly. And for the soul that said I did not call Him Father overnight — the mustard seed that grew over years into I have a Father — MacDonald confirms: that was the highest step the heart could climb. And from that step, the soul can see Him — far off, but real. Near — even within.
God is forgiving us every day — sending away from between him and us our sins and their fogs and darkness. Witness the shining of his sun and the falling of his rain — proof that he loves those who do not love him.
When some sin has clouded all our horizon and hidden him from our eyes, he — forgiving us before we are forgiven, and so that we may be forgiven — sweeps away a path for his forgiveness to reach our hearts, that it may, by causing our repentance, destroy the wrong and make us able even to forgive ourselves.
For some are too proud to forgive themselves until the forgiveness of God has had its way with them, has drowned their pride in the tears of repentance, and made their heart come again like the heart of a little child.
What a diamond I found in this text: He — forgiving us before we are forgiven, and so that we may be forgiven. 🙏
Le calls it a diamond — and it is. MacDonald has uncovered the deepest structure of divine forgiveness: God forgives before we are forgiven — so that we may be forgiven. The forgiveness is previous. The forgiveness is the cause of the repentance, not the reward for it. God does not wait for the soul to repent and then forgive. He forgives first — sweeps the path — and the sweeping causes the repentance. The order is the opposite of what religion teaches: not repent → forgive, but forgive → repent. God is always previous — even in pardoning.
And the proud soul — the one who cannot forgive herself, who rehearses the debt, who insists on carrying the shame — is drowned in tears of repentance by the flood of a forgiveness she did not earn and cannot resist. And the heart comes again like a little child. The 500 denari were forgiven before the soul asked. The path was swept before the feet walked it. The diamond was always there — waiting to be found.
"He — forgiving us before we are forgiven, and so that we may be forgiven."
George MacDonald · The diamond · God is always previous — even in pardoningForgiveness is the meeting of God's heart and ours, in spite of and in destruction of the wrong between us.
God's love is always ahead of his forgiveness. God's love is the prime mover, always seeking to complete his forgiveness, which needs the human response for its fulfillment.
God loves where he cannot yet forgive — where forgiveness in the full sense is simply impossible, because no meeting of hearts is possible, because that which lies between has not even begun to yield to the sweeping of his holy destruction.
There goes the sweeping. He works out the forgiveness. You have no part of it. God has always been the prime mover of all. 🙏
MacDonald reveals the relationship between love and forgiveness: love is ahead. Always ahead. Love is already there before forgiveness arrives. God loves where He cannot yet forgive — because the meeting of hearts has not yet happened. The sin still stands between. The wrong has not yet yielded. And still God loves. The love is the prime mover — seeking, pressing, sweeping — to clear the way for the forgiveness to complete itself.
And Le names what MacDonald describes: there goes the sweeping. The same sweeping from last night — the closet swept clean, the broom held by One hand only. He works out the forgiveness. The soul has no part in producing it. The love is the prime mover. The sweeping is the love in action. And the forgiveness — when it finally reaches the heart — is the meeting that the love has been working toward from the beginning.
Von Hügel said: God is always previous. Murray said: God claims, works, accepts, and maintains. MacDonald says: God loves before He forgives, forgives before we repent, and sweeps before we ask Him to. The prime mover of all.
We had a long day of traveling, but we finally reached our destination. Now it is up to God to open the doors or close them.
Brittany is magical — a different France. People here smile. They are kind and friendly. This is a France I didn't expect to find. 🙏
✦ The Doors Are in His Hands
The pilgrims have arrived — at the sea, at the edge of France, at the place where the doors will open or close. And Le places the outcome where it belongs: in God's hands. The prime mover who loves before He forgives, who forgives before we repent, who sweeps before we ask — He will open the right doors and close the wrong ones.
And Brittany surprised her. A France that smiles. Kind people. Friendly faces. The unexpected discovery that the destination is not what was feared — it is better. The clouds that were dreaded — big with mercy. The place that was unknown — full of welcome. The God who is always previous has been in Brittany longer than Le has. He prepared the smiles before she arrived. 🙏
"God's love is the prime mover, always seeking to complete his forgiveness."
George MacDonald · Unspoken Sermons · The sweeping continues — in Brittany and in the heartThe Diamond
Forgiving us before we are forgiven — so that we may be forgiven. The forgiveness is previous. The forgiveness causes the repentance. God sweeps the path before the feet walk it.
The Prime Mover
God's love is always ahead of His forgiveness. He loves where He cannot yet forgive. The love is the prime mover — seeking, pressing, sweeping — to clear the way for the meeting of hearts.
The Sweeping Continues
He works out the forgiveness. You have no part of it. The broom is in One hand only. The holy destruction sweeps what lies between — and the soul can only watch and worship.
The Doors in His Hands
The pilgrims arrived in Brittany. Now it is up to God to open or close. Brittany surprised — kind, smiling, a France not expected. The God who is always previous prepared the welcome.