June 8, 2004

•    Last evening I pulled out a book to read a bit before sleeping. I wasn’t yet sleepy, Michael was long in the land of nod and there was nothing of interest on television.

  
  

    The book I picked up had been recently rescued from a box in my garage (the place also known as no-man’s-land …YIKES!). At 4 p.m. on Saturday I realized I had not yet decided what we would have for supper. OOPS.

  
  

      In grubbing about in the overcrowded and highly in need of defrosting freezer, I found a nice sized bag of mozzarella cheese and decided that Saturday evening was a pizza kind of night. When I shut the freezer I turned a bit too abruptly and knocked a box over containing books. Books I had been LOOKING FOR and that shouldn’t have been in the too-damp-for-books garage. GRUMP

  
  

    Inside the box were my John Fischer books **I have been looking for these for a YEAR!**, a Bible study book on Romans, a telephone sans the power cord, file papers in need of shredding, ½ dozen books on herbs and homesteading, a few miscellaneous books, 25 or so empty CD cases, and …mouse droppings. OH GROSS.

  
  

   

  
  

  >>>MICHAEL! WE NEED POISON IN THE GARAGE….LIKE NOW!!<<<

  
  

    Anywho…

  
  

    I rescued my missing but not forgotten items and left the CD cases and mouse droppings behind, taking everything directly into the laundry room to be cleaned, wiped off and disinfected. Gross. Mouse droppings are GROSS. The papers were put on top of the shredder to await being cross-cut shredded to be added to the compost pile or to be used as garden mulch.

  
  

    The book I picked up was Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul. Thinking about where the book came from, I did’t remember buying it and I know I didn’t read it. I guess it must have been in a bag of books given to me, or it was picked up at a yard sale or thrift store and set in the box when we packed to move 2 ½ years ago. Yes, there are still unpacked boxes in my garage from that long ago. We had items in storage in my brother and sister-in-law’s basement for 10 years while we lived in a mobile home. Much of what is in the garage is from the basement, items awaiting a final home, and etc. items. Etc. items are things that we need to make a decision on but haven’t yet, but since we hope to finish off the garage this fall those etc. items will soon be moved out, moved in, or be moving on.

  
  

     One of the first several short stories in the book was one by Corrie Ten Boom. Only a few short pages in this book, but it cut me to the heart when I read it. She talks of ministering to people after the war. Many of those she spoke to were those who were wounded in spirit, mind and body by the Nazis. They lost homes, possessions, loved ones, and more than a little bit of themselves in the concentration camps. She spoke of forgiveness and moving on, continuing the life that God had blessed them with. Following these profound statements, she sees a man walking towards her who had been a guard in the concentration camp, Auschwitz, where she and her sister had been imprisoned, and where her sister had met her death. He had been the most terrible of the guards and she remembered him vividly. He did not remember her, but he did come up to her and ask her forgiveness as one of those who persecuted her. He was now a believer and her brother in Christ, and was asking her forgiveness. Not able to do it in and of herself, she asks the Lord to give her the strength to do so, and in doing so a healing begins in her.

  
  

    This in and of itself it a profound and life changing moment, but what she says about forgiveness sums up what I have felt about but never been able to put so succinctly into words. Forgiveness isn’t an act of the will, it is an act of faith. That the Lord will complete the work He begins. Forgiveness isn’t restitution. It doesn’t make right the wrong done, but it begins the healing in the one giving forgiveness. Our flesh cannot give the forgiveness that Christ commanded .

  
  

   

  
  

    “ Treat others as you would have them forgive you.” He also said that by the measure we forgive others, that is the same measure by which we will be forgiven.” Matthew 7:14

  
  

      "If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6:14,15).

  
  

     “...Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)

  
  

   

  
  

     Forgiveness was pretty important to Jesus. He spoke about it a lot. And what is impressive is that He practiced what He preached. It’s rare to find those who are a living example of Christ’s exhortation to give the same forgiveness that we so highly value being the recipient of. I have never read any of Corrie ten Boom’s writings. I don’t quite know how I missed doing so, but I am going to do so now.

  
  

     Quiltnmom speaks about forgiveness on her blog. Check it out and let me know what you think.

  
  

     Reading about it 2 days in a row..hmm… I wonder if the Lord is trying to teach me something specific here.

  
  

    

  • 10:33 pm
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