18 March 2009

forgiveness

i´m glad i´m not God because there are some things i don´t know i could forgive. at least, i don´t know if i could forgive without first doling out consequences or making someone pay for their past, then no longer remembering their wrongdoings.

this comes about after reading of the guilty plea of josef fritzl, the "monster of amstetten," in austria, who locked his daughter away for 24 years and raped her continuously. if he repented and turned his life to Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith and through whom we are reconciled to God the Father, he would be as equal a co-heir with Christ in his kingdom as i would be. as a human, i don´t like that idea very much because of the pain he has caused not only his daughter, but her children. these victims now live in a different part of the country with new identities and are receiving intense counseling, but what about the scars of their past?

scars heal our wounds and help make us new, but they also mark a part of our past; each one has a story. Jesus´ blood washes clean our wounds of sin and makes us a new creation! it´s the great wonder of salvation, and it´s freely given to us without holding anything over our heads. that´s another thing that´s hard to reconcile as humans--a free gift.

1 comment:

Mary Clara said...

Weirdly, I find a lot of comfort in God forgiving that man. We all do and think terrible things... and it makes me feel warm and cuddly inside that God sees it all and loves us. He sees the hurt and anger and fear and our past that drives us to do terrible things -- even when everyone else only sees the terrible things.
And he loves us.
I can worship a God like that.

Can't wait to have you both back :).