December 6: JUSTICE
      He gives rain on the earth    
and sends waters on the fields; 
he sets on high those who are lowly,    
and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 
Job 5:10-11



Reflection by Nancy Bryan

Justice issues spoke to me at an early age. I remember children lined up at the fence around the public pool where I swam because black children could not swim there. Then there were the usual family "injustices" which led to my running away from home twice as a young child, bag packed with night gown, toothbrush and sandwiches. In junior high I led a protest march related to my eighth grade teacher's unfair comments to a classmate who spoke out against the Vietnam War. My mind was wired to help, to repair, and correct injustice and those affected by it, and led me to my college degree and career choices. 
 
So we all want justice right? I mean, don't we want to consider ourselves as being fair, having the right values, being peace loving? But it gets tricky when justice butts up against our own selfishness. Justice doesn't always go well with loving one another-at least the kind of loving we were instructed to do by our Lord. So you work hard for the money and it doesn't seem fair that those who don't work get free food at Publix, but is that how Jesus sees the situation? 

 In my line of work, I want justice for the child who has suffered abuse and loses his family in the process of seeking that justice. But what does that look like? That child needs love, healing and protection. And that child needs his innocence back-his trust in the world. What society needs is for that child's perpetrator to be behind bars so that he does not ever hurt another child; but even with that, there is no resolution to what happened to the child. And for the one who inflicted this horrible abuse, where was the justice for him when what he did to this child was learned at the abusive hands of someone he trusted as a child? 

 We are children of God and if we truly love God and strive for the close relationship he offers, we need to be acting for justice. If we love and worship the God of the Bible, we must love the God of Justice. As we ask God to reveal our role in seeking justice in the play of life, he will provide the script to set the lowly on high and lift the mourning to safety.

Think Outside the Manger  is a daily Advent devotional written and produced by members of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Tifton, GA. Visit www.stannestifton.com to learn more.

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