Torn & Mended

In Desert Wisdom, Sayings from the Desert Fathers, “Abba Mios was asked by a soldier whether God would forgive a sinner. After instructing him at some length, the old man asked him, ‘Tell me, my dear, if your cloak were torn, would you throw it away?’ ‘Oh, no!’ he replied. ‘I would mend it and wear it again.’ The old man said to him, ‘Well, if you care for your cloak, will not God show mercy on his own creatures?’”

- taken from A Stone for a Pillow, by Madeleine L’Engle, chapter 4