The Transformation of Justice

I read this story at an open Mike at Jesus People USA on Apr.3 2015.

 

The Transformation of Justice

 

Justice was born in a penthouse high above the gold coast in Chicago. He was beautiful boy who seemed perfect in every way. Everyone in his rich neighborhood loved him. And everyone in the poor neighborhoods wished they could have a boy like that as their son also.

As justice grew things did not stay so ideal. He had a mean side. When he played with the other children stories would come back that he had a Mr Hyde side that showed itself in rudeness and intolerance.

 

About the same time Justice was born, a little girl was born in an alley on the South side of Chicago. She got her name when her mother brought her to a shelter saying, "Mercy, please have mercy." She was known as Mercy from that moment on. Mercy seemed to be a magnet for abuse. Some of it was due to her personality. She was cold and aloof. When she went to the playground she would stand apart so the other children would tease her and make her the brunt of their jokes. She didn't make sense. “She is strange. She is not one of us. Who could believe her,” they said.

 

Nobody on God's green earth can tell how Mercy ever met Justice much less how they fell in love. It must have been the God of God's Green earth that made it happen and saw them joined in wedlock. Sadly their's was a marriage like so many others, where at home there was constant argument and conflict but when they were out in society they were the perfect couple. Justice learned that whenever he went out he needed Mercy with him. Mercy drew Justice out of his home neighborhood and into the ghetto where they were received like king and queen.

 

But personally, Mercy and justice were failing. They felt like hypocrites between their social life and their home life. And they had not gotten married to fight and argue all the time. How could this story ever end with, “and they lived happily ever after.”

 

Then the unexpected happened. A baby was on the way. The surprise only gave them something else to disagree about and Justice slipped back into some of his meanness when Mercy was hindered by the pregnancy and couldn't accompany him.

 

But when Forgiveness came, miraculously, everything changed. Forgiveness made all their arguments evaporate. And they both went away satisfied that they had won. When Justice was feeling mean, Forgiveness soothed the anger. Whenever Mercy felt like she was being used by her friends she had only to remember Forgiveness and the pain evaporated. Whenever they took Forgiveness out she spread joy wherever she went among the rich or the poor.

Justice and Mercy felt like they finally were a true family. Life was good for them and Forgiveness. And the truth is, they lived happily ever after.