He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!

The above quatrain from a broader work by Edwin Markham was brought to my memory in prayer service a few weeks ago. I was thinking about our monthly theme of repentance and how we so often want God to quickly forgive us when we trespass but how slow we are to forgive each other. How too often when we “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3) we point the accusatory finger at another … how our contending at times becomes contentious and divisive.

The parable of the prodigal son is a stern rebuke of what it means to draw a circle and shut someone out and the benefits of drawing circles to take people in. In this parable we often focus on the younger son, the one who ran off with his inheritance and squandered it in riotous living. We marvel at his father’s reaction on his return and we should because it is a wonderful example of repentance and forgiveness.

But this parable is more about the elder brother, the one who stayed. The one who never left. The one who did not squander his inheritance. The one who believed he was right and his brother was wrong. Consider his attitude upon his brothers return. He was angry that love had the wit to win and that his father drew a circle and took him in. In the end, the elder brother did not partake of the great feast, he was left on the outside, bitter and angry. He had drawn a circle that left his brother out. He deemed him a heretic a rebel and a thing to flout … but in so doing, he just left himself out.

Forgiveness and love is always the better course. Latter day revelation teaches us that we “ought to forgive one another, for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses, standeth condemned before the Lord, for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men;” (Section 64:2d-e)

If the adversary can get brother to turn against brother, sister against sister, he creates a whirlwind of division and destruction and he wins. If the body of Christ demonstrates love and care and concern for one another, if we bear each others burdens, if we are long suffering, if we forbear one another in love, if we uphold each other in prayer, if we resist the temptation to draw circles and shut people out but draw circles that take each other in, then God wins and his kingdom will be established among us.

We should each and every day walk in the inspired admonition that came through Joseph Luff:

Heed ye, then, this admonition:
Climb to atmosphere of love.

Love ye me and love all people—
Love as I have loved you;
This your calling—this my purpose—
Thus be my disciples true.

Then in this exalted station
Your companion I will be;
Every promise of my Scriptures
Will be verified in thee.