Ros B

“The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ. No prerequisites. No hoops to jump through.”
― Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

“Keen interest from a caring person is important, but their understanding depends on our willingness to disclose information about ourselves. Humans need understanding but we can’t hope to be understood without being prepared to reveal the truth about ourselves. Lack of sharing is the death knell of intimacy.”
― Jonathan Andrews, The Reconnected Heart: How relationships can help us heal

“Passive interest is simply not enough to help us grow. Only in the context of ‘active and constructive’ relationships can we establish real intimacy and a sense of being valued by others. In these relationships, we get to tell our story, and to convey our experience. It is the safe and motivated curiosity of the other person that establishes a rapport of real substance. That sort of relationship is the birth of real love and the death of our loneliness. It is the gestation of a life well lived, and food for our hearts.”
― Jonathan Andrews, The Reconnected Heart: How relationships can help us heal

“To make a good man, God has to use all of his skill. Some of the goodness of God himself goes into such a man. And when the man is ready to take his place on the earth, God must feel the pride that I feel when I look at the rug I am weaving, at the strands that bind closely together and knot and make a pattern, and at the beauty of the colours. Such a long day's work to make a good man! And yet, one bullet that takes a second to speed through the air and strike a man will kill him in an instant. How can God forgive such a thing? And yet He can, so it is said, for His heart is great and His forgiveness infinite, if the sinner repents. But I am not God and I cannot forgive the man who killed my brother.”
― Najaf Mazari, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif