"How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings ..." These words from Jesus in Luke's Gospel are not spoken in anger, but in aching love. He stands before Jerusalem-not as a judge, but as a mother longing to shelter her children. Though rejected, He does not retreat. Jesus had resolutely made His way to Jerusalem. Though threatened, He does not abandon. His desire to gather us is fearless, nurturing, and tender.

St Paul echoes this in Romans: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" The love of God is not cautious-it is courageous. It does not flinch before suffering, nor falter in the face of sin. "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." Not hardship, not persecution, not even death. God's love enfolds our brokenness-it enters it, embraces it, and redeems it.

God's love gathers. Not with force, but with fidelity. Not with fear, but with freedom. God does not hesitate to draw near. It is we who resist, who scatter, who hide. Yet even then, He waits. He weeps. He calls.

Hence, take every opportunity to be drawn into the shelter of His wings, into the unshakable embrace of His divine mercy. For we are not strangers to God-we are His beloved. And He is never afraid to love us and lead us home.