Perceptions of Reconciliation
Bible talks so much about reconciliation. Image two known-good persons who have a prolonged fight or an argument. The fight or the argument would severely affect their good relationship, which they enjoyed is now marching towards to the verge of breaking. They stop speaking with each other, and communication is all about to cease. The one who had been closer is all about to end up as stranger. These kinds of estrangement can only get solved through reconciliation. Dictionary meaning of reconciliation means "to be restored to friendship or harmony". This is what God expects from us. When the known good friends resolve their differences by working on the issue, all their relationship which they lost gets restored, reconciliation happens. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
Scriptures say in (Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:18) that Jesus Christ the Messiah reconciled us to God. We need reconciliation with God because we had a broken relationship with God through the venom of sins. Our sins stand as a barrier between God and us without reaching Him. When one asks for reconciliation, the barrier is broken, and sin gets alienated from us. Romans 5:10 makes it clear "that we were enemies of God: "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"
Reconciliation is an over-arching process which entails the search for justice, truth, forgiveness and love. To make it short, it means looking for a way to live alongside with our former enemies. Not necessarily to love them, or forgive them, or forget the past in any way, but to coexist with them, to develop the degree of cooperation necessary to share our society with them, so that we all have better lives together than we have had separately. Reconciliation is a parallel process that redesigns the relationship between us. This got to be a significant and hard challenge with the present political situations and racism, which are heading over everywhere. However, the efforts bring in a major reward: Effective reconciliations can bring best-guaranteed results that violence or protest will not come back. If you build the new relationship based on love, respect and understanding it could easily eradicate the strains of fear and draw the patterns of cooperation that we then develop are the best safeguards against a return to the violent division. This can't be done on human intellectual it needs the grace of God to achieve this. Christians have got more responsibility to bring in the peace and restoration of relationship.
Since we are reconciled with God expects such kind of character while we are living in this hated world. God has set us as a light to this world; we need to show the light of compassion, love, care and accepting everyone. As a body of Christ, we are to love everyone, and there should not be any strains of racism with us. Jesus has shown and lived as an example in the process of reconciliation. We as Christians have to make an initiative to bring in the peace among people who stands in the opposition, stand with the protest, stand with racism among white and black.