Having an expectation of forgiveness.

[Sojourner]

I liked this, subtle but deep and perhaps carries a message that hurting people is not good in the first place.

- Grab a plate and throw it on the ground.

---------- Okay, done.

- Did it break?

---------- Yes.

- Now say sorry to it.

---------- Sorry.

- Did it go back to the way it was before?

---------- No.

- Do you understand?

[JoeMo]

Good example for the physical world; not so much for the spiritual world.

Number 1 pushback - I can't throw God on the ground.

Number 2 pushback - even if I could throw God on the ground, He wouldn't break.  He's unbreakable.

Number 3 pushback - If I throw a plate on the ground and just say I'm sorry, the words mean nothing.  If I "repent" of breaking the plate, I may take action and try to glue it back together.  The plate may be damaged, but at least it's a plate again.  The "action" of repentance is much more effective in repairing what was damaged than the mere words "I'm sorry".

 

God says several places in the NT that we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.  In a spiritual sense, isn't this reconciliation synonymous with repair here?  We were broken before we were saved.  If we're saved, we're not only the same as before, we're better.

[Tom Wetmore]

But God did allow himself to be thrown down and broken, so broken no man could put him back together again. But a broken God can put himself back together again. Because we know that the broken plate that we might be able to glue back together again is still a broken plate held together by glue, not like it was, and never will be. But God can make it so.

[joeb]

Sojourner,

 

It's too bad your point was missed.

[Lauralea]

People and relationships get broken and we may not be able to fix what we broke in a moment of carelessness anger or some other weak moment.