God's Compassion - Rabbi Harold Kushner

“People only see what is visible, measurable; God sees into the heart. He not only forgives our failures, He sees successes where no one else does … not even ourselves. Only God gives us credit for the angry words we do not speak, the temptations that we resisted, the patience and gentleness little noticed and long forgotten by those around us. Just being human gives us value in his eyes, and trying to live with integrity makes us successful before him. God redeems us from the sense and fear of failure, because he sees us as no human eyes see us. Some religions teach that God knows us so well that he knows all our shameful thoughts and nasty secrets. I prefer to believe that God sees us so clearly that he knows better than anyone else our wounds and sorrows, the scars on our hearts from having wanted to do more and do better and being told by the world that we never would."

— Rabbi Harold Kushner