"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Years ago, an old 80+ year old friend once told me that when the large family gathered for a meal, her grandfather (that takes us back to the late Victorian age,) would look around the table and say, "My, isn't it a mercy we're all spared to be here!"
I guess he would be familiar with words that are like cats' eyes on a dark road, from the saddest book of the Bible, Lamentations 3.22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”
So when we hear Jesus promising blessing to those who are merciful, he means that every time we enact and embody mercy to others, we are giving to others strong hints, visible clues, strong evidence, of what God is like. What's more, God's mercies to us are new every morning, so we never run out of the grace, and the love, and the energy, and the imagination, out of which comes every act of kindness, compassion and generosity.
It may well be that today, we are one of the mercies God brings into the life of someone for whom life isn't going well. Whatever else mission is, it is to be the walking proof of the mercy of God.
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