The goodness of God is strikingly portrayed in the radically new image of father. This is a God who allows us to follow our own dreams, who is partial to no one, who faithfully and patiently waits for us to return, who gently corrects our misperceptions. God longs to be reconciled with us even more than we long to be reconciled with God. The challenges placed before us set out some of the conditions required if we are to be a new creation. We are called to a profound and total reconciliation, first with God and then with each other. Christ was identified with sin so that we might be identified with God’s righteousness. Reconciliation requires that we be open to giving and receiving forgiveness. It requires that we both remember and forget. We must always remember the causes of alienation, so that we not succumb to them again. However, we must forget the resentment that we felt so that we not allow it to influence our lives.