The Gift of Forgiveness

If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions

For hiding Jews in her home during World War II, Corrie ten Boom was imprisoned in the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp.   She survived the Holocaust, and after the war, she traveled all over Europe speaking about the need for forgiveness and reconciliation.

At one such event, she recognized one of the Ravensbruck prison guards.   He said to her, “I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. . . . Will you forgive me?”   Corrie struggled to raise her hand to meet his, but she felt only coldness in her heart.   So she prayed, “Jesus, help me,” and then “woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me.”

Suddenly she felt a current race down her arm and into their joined hands. “Then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.  ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried.   ‘With all my heart!’ . . . I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his.   When he tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

None of us find it easy to forgive—which is why Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:15) are so challenging.   But Corrie ten Boom’s openness to God’s grace in that moment didn’t come out of the blue.   Her heart had been prepared through many years of prayerfully following the Lord.   Her habitual practice of seeking God had convinced her that, even if it was hard to do, she needed to speak those words of forgiveness.

God wants to give you the gift of forgiveness as well.   Day in, day out, as you draw close to him, he can cultivate the soil of your heart, making you more and more open to his grace.   Then, when the moment appears, forgiveness will come, just as it did for Corrie ten Boom.

Word Among Us