Together

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 

 - From Psalm 85

"Together" is a word that we take for granted. We do not dwell enough on it: it's meaning. It's important. It's urgency for enhancing human progress.

Together works, as a great idea, because it implies the coming together of two formerly discordant ideas. Together is wonderful, because it implies that I may find common ground with my enemy. We may be worlds apart in our values, our worldview, our highest hopes and aspirations (although I doubt people are too far removed from each other in each of these ideals); but if we're together, it means we will keep each other's backs, against common foes. In fact, it means that, since we have covenanted with each other, that anybody threatening our unity is a foe. 

Together is the lifeblood of the idea of marriage: that two people, as different from each other as the typical male, and typical female is, can wield an alliance that literally makes them one: one flesh, one symbiosis, one purpose under Heaven. The classical concept of male and female carries with it the powerful notion that two people, made essentially different from one another, are able yet to combine into an inseparable whole. 

If humanity is to survive, we must have this sense of total unity, between people that heretofore would never want to be in each other's company.

This is why the harsh divisions in the world are so dangerous today. You can't have together, if you can't at least admit that together is desirable, especially between two incompatible parties. 

And we will utterly fail as a species, if we cannot get ourselves together.

This is also why it's such a big deal, for mercy and truth to come together in God's strategy. Total mercy requires that we arrest our devotion to truth. But truth without mercy can be a lifeless corpse. Righteousness and peace, too, are risky partners. An excessive enforcement of righteousness is anything but peaceful, for the half of the population falling short. 

But we need to be together. Like oil and water. Like fire and ice. Like lions and lambs. We need that first. We need a commitment to each other first. And then let nothing tear us asunder.