My friend Henry was an old saint with a special touch for babes in Christ. One particular day stands out in my mind, when Henry, our pastor, and I were having a chat in the church foyer.

Pastor asked Henry how he could possibly be so happy all the time. A smile rose in Henry's eyes as he answered, "Jesus is a better Saviour than you are a sinner." I laughed out loud. Pastor frowned. He shook his head and was close to pontificating. I knew we would soon hear his favourite verses, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5), and "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

Henry recognized the warning signs and saved us by ringing the "Let's-go-for-coffee" bell. Pastor drove. Along the way, we encountered a traffic accident with angry participants, fresh graffiti on the high-school wall, and splattered pumpkins just about everywhere. Pastor noted how, these days, sin was really on the increase.

That same look came into Henry's eyes. "I love that, because it means grace abounds all the more, Pastor." He quoted today's Scripture verbatim, and closed with "Jesus is a better Saviour than you are a sinner." I laughed out loud again, and, in the rear-view mirror, I saw a smile in Pastor's eyes. Grace was breaking through.

That day was more than twenty years ago. I came across that phrase again just recently, and I thought how wonderful it is that while the truth doesn't change, it does change us.

Prayer: Father, thank you that Jesus is better, than, well, everything, anything, or anyone. He is greater than our sin. As we confess our sins, Jesus is just and able to forgive them all, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Help us to reflect your light, as your glorious Son reflects you, being no respecter of persons, and forgiving all who come with sincere and repentant hearts. Amen.

Not everyone who meets his future wife on New Year's Eve gets married seven months later, and stays married for 18 years, but I did. There is the grace of God for you, the power of the new creation.

Having grown up in a dysfunctional home and having come late to know Christ, I didn't want to repeat any destructive cycle in my own marriage. So I suggested to my fiancée that it might be best to call the whole thing off.

Mary Beth (MB) was undaunted. She asked me if I believed the Bible to be the Word of God. I knew that my only available option was to answer "Yes". She then opened her Bible to today's scripture, and asked me to read it out loud, and I did: "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come."

MB asked me if I believed that to be true in my life. I did. She told me that she saw no reason not to get married, because the cycle was already broken. What I needed to do was walk the truth out.

As a precaution against a negative reaction, I made my proposal on April Fool's Day (yes, really), but if I had understood 2 Corinthians 5:17 better, I would not have worried. Just as I am made more complete by my spouse, more fully 'me' than I was before I met her, so it is that in-Christ I am more fully 'me' than I was without Christ.

The Word and MB were right. Ours is a blessed marriage. Ours is a marriage that we have worked for. Your story may be different, but I can assure you of this: in Christ, we can always begin again, for in him we are a new creation.

Prayer: Father, we who are happily married thank you for blessing us through our spouses, and we ask you to help us not to take our love for granted. For we who struggle and who are at odds in our marriage, we ask that you would grant peace and the hope of new life again in your Son. For we who ache with pain and remorse for a marriage ship-wrecked, we ask for mercy and the will to seek your outcome. For we who are not married, keep us pure, fill us with hope, and point us in the direction of your will. Amen.

Gothic arches stand at brittle angles, the shadow of a wartime cathedral. A holy place of commerce bows low. The blown-out windows never did hold any reminder of the Stations of the Cross, of the One who "descended into the lower parts of the earth" and then "when he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." (Ephesians 4:8,9) Empty windows remind me that, once again, man conspired to make gifts of his own.

From another view, I see the pipes of a crippled organ, and wonder now who will sing? Even so, the smoky light breaking through the beams shatters the dark, and reminds us that somehow the darkness will never comprehend the light nor will evil apprehend faith. Somehow, the image-bearers of God rise, some in Christ and many more in the common grace of God, to sacrifice, to give, to try to help in the healing, to feel at one with a greater Love by touching one another in love. Many will sing again, a new song.

With eyes made square by endless hours of television, nerves sustained on one too many coffees, and knees worn tired from prayer, perhaps I will be forgiven if I seem crass when I say that I can think of no better monument to these days than the image of the fallen towers as an icon. What could be more fitting than one image as an actual piece of sculpture? It is a sculpture hewn as a reminder of the loss, yes, but also of the strange victory that has risen as millions rally together in our common humanity.

An iconic statement of defiance against anarchy — a promise of our resilience — seems obvious to me, and yet, again, I see more. For those who know we are made in the image of a sovereign God, it would be a declaration of dependence: dependence utterly upon God, not only for our salvation but also for every breath we receive, and dependence upon one another as fellow image-bearers of the grace of God.

As a Canadian, the U.S. civic holiday called Independence Day is not as significant for me as for my brothers and sisters in America. Even so, one of our national newspapers reported today that "'Canada will "unambiguously" join U.S. military action in striking back at terrorism, even if Canadian lives are lost,' John Manley, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday." (Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief, The National Post) And so, as I think of 9/11, a deep and, I pray, abiding link has been forged in our common recognition of the day that I call Dependence Day.

Romans 9:16 – So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. (RSV)

Romans 12:18 – If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. (RSV)

Prayer: Father, as each side proclaims the "evil" deeds of the other, only you reign and rule and are justified when you judge, made right when you speak. For your mercy we pray. For the grace to repent of our own evils against you and your creation and those created in the image of you, whether they be among your chosen seed or not, we pray. For grace and mercy, healing and peace we pray — for all victims, survivors and, yes, O God, even for the perpetrators. For your saints in the afflicted areas we pray. For all who have not acknowledged your claim upon their lives, may your Spirit be that hound of heaven to their souls. For the leaders of our nations we pray for the grace to receive your wisdom, discernment, correction and direction. Amen.