Someone defined forgiveness as the sweet smell given by a rose as it is crushed!
What a powerful expression of forgiveness. In our experience, the closest expression to it that we have experienced is that of Graham Staines.
In 2003, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his family were evangelizing in a remote part of the world, when one night, as Staines slept with his two sons in the back of their vehicle, some people set fire to the car and burnt the three of them alive. Staines was survived by his wife and one daughter. The murderers were caught and went on trial. When Mrs. Staines was asked for her comments, she simply said, "I forgive (them)" !
In 2005, she was awarded the fourth highest honor a civilian can receive in that country in recognition for her work . In 2016, she received the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice.
I cannot ever imagine what Mrs. Staines and her daughter must have gone through and what courage and faith it must have taken her to say those words. What can be more heartbreaking, similar to the crushing of that rose, and yet the sweet smell of her forgiveness was experienced around the world and maybe in heaven.
She truly brought to life the following verse
Ephesians 4:31-32
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
She did as Christ did. She did as Stephen did. When we have such great examples of forgiveness before us, why then is it such an issue and difficulty for us to forgive? How often we say - I am too hurt to forgive. Was our hurt more than Mrs Staines? How often we declare a conditional forgiveness. Did Jesus put conditions on us, His murderers, before He forgave us? NO. He simply said - “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
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