You remember that day so well. That event. Those words. Those hard years…when the cutting and tearing of your heart began. You remember how you felt; how those raw emotions can be drudged up, creating despair in your soul. You’ve tried to let go, you’ve tried to forget, but the monster of memories come without warning. Maybe you are still there – will it ever stop? Is this what life has become?
You’ve been wounded. Someone has hurt you. Someone may be hurting you at this very moment. You’ve been told that forgiveness is a choice, but maybe it’s a choice you’d rather not make. Forgiving looks too much like letting go and that would mean “they” would be off the hook. Letting go would seem like nothing happened.
That wouldn’t be fair.It wasn’t fair that the thief that day was forgiven instantly. He hung there, next to the Perfect Lamb of God. Someone had suffered because of his actions. Perhaps he’d wounded many through the course of his years. Maybe he was a man who inflicted pain continually…but as their suffocating bodies gasped for air…Jesus forgives him…tells him he would join him in heaven.
The man who hung next to the sacrifice for his sin recognized that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.
He also recognized his own need for a Savoir and his own sin.
It wasn’t fair that Jesus had to die for him – or anyone – the thief, the murderer, the fool, the selfish, the ones who would take advantage of others…
It wasn’t fair that Jesus had to die for me and my sick sins. It wasn’t fair that He died for you.
That’s not fair, that’s grace, mercy, perfect love.
We have a hard time wrapping our mind around that kind of love because we want to weigh the wounds against us with our own imperfect and impatient scale. We weigh grace and mercy with blood-stained hands. We want someone to pay for leaving us with wounds. We want them to “feel.”
Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting.
Forgiving doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences.
Forgiving doesn’t mean pretending “it” didn’t happen.
Forgiving does mean freedom.
No longer are you bound to the bitterness,the racing thoughts, the relentless lies of the enemy. No longer are you held captive by the wounds, the emotions. You remember, you accept, you let go of it binding and tying up your life. You know there are wounds – Jesus knows wounds quiet well – Those scars will be there for all eternity.
To understand grace, you need to understand sin…
yours.
