And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20

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Forgiveness takes one person.  

Reconciliation takes two people.  

In my own life someone who I loved and honored and was very close to me said something very cruel & harsh to me and it really hurt. I even came home and wrote it down & put it in a dresser drawer because I could not believe what he had said. Over time I chose to forgive him. Even though I forgave him we never reconciled and went on with life and pretended it did not happen.  

It still stung me because we never talked about it. And it bothers me to this very day 28 years later.  

So, what was missing from the whole experience was reconciliation. In this case the person who hurt me was oblivious to what he had done. We could have had a more harmonious relationship if we had been able to talk about it.  

Forgiveness is a wonderful thing but reconciliation is even better and as ambassadors for Christ we can be people who have been reconciled and help others reconcile as well.   

God has forgiven us and when we accept that forgiveness, we were reconciled to him.

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By Michael Bacik