Be Kind and Compassionate to One Another, Forgiving Each Other

There is a word that brings peace and joy when spoken. This one little word can do what some thought impossible, and it alone is powerful enough to remove much of the chaos that is in this world. Speak it and you will find it light as a feather; but when left unspoken there is unbearable weight on your shoulders. Out of all the words that Jesus could have spoken in His dying breath, He chose the word, “forgive.”

Jesus wanted us to have this peace so much that He died to save us. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” All of us need forgiveness because much of the time “we know not what we do.”

Jesus told a disturbing story. It began as good news when a man with a huge debt he could not pay was forgiven. The forgiveness was soon recalled because the forgiven man refused to be a forgiving man. The person who cannot forgive others is like a person who returns a precious gift to the store, only in this case it is the gift of life.

I read of a family doctor years ago who treated many people who could not pay their bill. He always did the best that he could for them. When he died, his daughter (who did not share his kind spirit) decided to collect the unpaid money. She took the doctor’s ledger to her lawyer. He told her that no judge would take her case because written in red ink beside each name was the word, “FORGIVEN.”

In letters of crimson, God wrote His love
On the hillside so long, long ago;
For you and for me Jesus died,
And love’s greatest story was told.

I love you; I love you
That’s what Calvary said;
I love you; I love you,
I love you, written in red.