Dana Owens

The power that a mother has over her child(ren) is indeed undeniable. In Isaiah 66, even God compares his love toward humans in this way: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”

What we should subdue and prevail over is neither other humans nor forces of hell, but the selfish desires arising from our own heart.

Reflecting on the meaning of the Latin word merced, “price paid,” I cannot help but to think of redemptive work accomplished by the life and suffering of Jesus Christ. Jesus, Incarnate Divine, brought back what humanity lost: spiritual freedom.

Being family with the Creator is neither an automatic status nor purchasable commodity. According to Jesus, we must earn this spiritual state of being by “living the will of God.”

Why would it be helpful to think with one’s eyes closed? The hopeful expectation is that one might be able to see what is in one’s heart, because seeing the physical and materialistic reality has been limited by closing one’s eyes.