This is a question that I struggle with, and have always struggled with for a long time.
How does one push past the pain and suffering that a person had willingly caused, worse yet, caused to someone that they loved. We stand at the sidelines, and feel ourselves slighted, yet the pain we feel is minuscule, compared to the earth-shattering hurt our loved one experiences. Yet we are powerless, drowning in a helplessness, grasping for any lifeline that can pull ourselves out from the deep.
How can we let go when hatred is all we know. A hatred that festered from seeds of dislike. This poison that we feed ourselves. Yet it is all we know.
How does one tell oneself to let go?
If a person murders your son, and returns a month later, saying he is genuinely sorry; what would you do? He comes in and says he will pay for the cleaning bill, to wipe the blood stains off the floor, and to send the carpet for dry cleaning. He will pay for the hospital bill for the cuts we sustained while we were defending ourselves from his knife. He will buy ice-cream for the other kids. And he will come round regularly just to say hello, perhaps to water the plants while you are gone from home.
What would you do?
How does one move on from that?
How does one forgive? Even when the person you love chokes on his own blood, holding the wounds with bloodied hands, and tells you that he already has.
Will you?
How does one forgive?
Yet the Lord is Most Forgiving, Most Kind.
Teach me forgiveness.
*Image - copyright Abdullah Mohd Nawi
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