Forgiveness for God's Sake

The forgiveness story of a father of a 12-year Arab boy who died during a quarrel with another student at their school deeply touched me. According to Gulf News as gathered from local media, it was a result of asphyxiation.

The other boy was held by authorities for investigation, but they were requested by the father of the victim to release him, get him reunited with his family and bring him back to school immediately. He told them that the boy was forgiven.

Losing a child can break the parents' hearts. It takes a big faith in God to bear this heavy sorrow and cope up with the untimely loss of a precious offspring.

The boy's father said, "My forgiveness is for God's sake." 

How many of us can tell this when other people wronged, betrayed, insulted, humiliated and in other ways hurt us? Only the strong ones can do.

Mahatma Gandhi, in his "All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections", said,

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

I experienced betrayal, dressed in sheep's clothes. The pain is unbelievable when it comes from people you trust highly, more so if they are in your close circles -- family, relatives, and friends who were privileged to hear your stories you shared with confidence; whom you fed with your bare hands, and; for whom you sacrificed precious time and things which you could have enjoyed otherwise.

Acceptance is the first key to move on when I feel betrayed. Acceptance that it happened as it was bound to happen, and acceptance that life is like a jungle -- along the way to my destination, there are many predators, but they cannot -- can never, never -- hurt my spirit.

As my brains process what happened, why it happened, and what I am going to do to deal with it, I let go of my forgiveness tears that change in color and form to golden dews, watering a green field. Green is the color of forgiveness. My tears would give life to those plants in the green field in my imagination.

It is easy to say "Forgive and forget". We can forgive people who hurt us, but we cannot easily forget bad experiences, as memories cannot be deleted in a wink of an eye.

There was a woman who always looked at me as her prey. She insulted me, humiliated me, mocked me, embarrassed me, disrespected me and fabricated lies to put me down. I could have filed charges of insult or oral defamation/slander and invasion of privacy for what she did to me. There were opportunities to take revenge that could land her to jail or she would pay huge fines for her other offenses, but NO, I would not put those in my hands. Not just once but few times I saved her silently at the open chances that I could have been vindictive at my worst.

Romans 12 : 19 NIV is very clear.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

I have my own boundaries, and I could not just zip my mouth about my STOP signboard. I am a very transparent person and what I feel shows in my face. I can forgive a person who wrongs me, but let it not be misinterpreted that I will allow the same thing to happen again.

I can forgive as God forgives me for my sins.

To repeat what the boy's father said, "My forgiveness is for God's sake."

What is my human pain compared to the Redeemer's shedding of blood?

I passionately melt all the grudges in my heart and cleanse it with His blood.  Hebrews 19 : 22 NIV --

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood  there is no forgiveness.

---



Photo credits:  Pixabay