Forgiveness

A man went to his pastor a week after his mother’s funeral, in the clutches of overwhelming guilt and remorse. He confessed that he had never really had a good relationship with his mother and, as a result, had not given her the kind of care in her dying days that she deserved. But, of course, she was dead, and there was nothing now that he could do.

The pastor shared with him the Good News of forgiveness: that there was something bigger in the world than he was; that the something bigger was the reality of grace and mercy. He invited him to accept the gift of forgiveness—not because he deserved it but because it was God’s nature to give it.

Then the pastor said, “I know of an elderly woman in our congregation who has no children and is very con- cerned about how she is going to negotiate her last days. Not in order to earn God’s forgiveness, but as a sign of the fact that you have received this gift, I think it would be won- derful if you would start doing for this woman what you cannot do for your own mother now.”

The suggestion made sense to the man and he began to do it. It was a way of concretizing the forgiveness he had experienced. It was a way Of looking forward to the future differently, not in spite of, but actually because of the past.