God is merciful. Mercy creates meaning. Mercy is long-term love applied to an immediate situation. Sacrificial acts are not enjoyed or celebrated in their own right. They are simply an incident in the larger purpose of love and the persistent effort which love invites.
Mercy is the personal investment of life that adds to human capital.
It renews creation every moment that it occurs. Mercy is the kind of energy and effort that builds a family, a community, a school, a business, a city, a workforce, a world. It adds to human wealth. It inspires, multiplying itself through the human spirit. You can tell whether it is there in the center of things by seeing how the old, the poor, and the helpless are treated on the edge of things.