First Sunday Meditation: Forgiveness

Dearest Lord,

The scene of Your death,

 the agony of Your suffering being nailed

to the cross, never fails to remind me 

that the hands that drove the

nails into Your palms 

could have belonged to me.  

Scene from the movie,

"The Passion of the Christ"

(2004)

 In making your agonizing choice
in the Garden, You could have chosen to
say, "No" and walked away from it all.
But You didn't walk away.

You could have called upon the Father, 

Who would have sent a

legion of His fiercest warrior angels 

to defeat Your enemies on the spot.
But You remained silent.

Because You love me,

 You chose to be obedient to the will of Your Father,

even unto death.  Even in the midst of the terrible

agony of the cross, You showed Your great love and

mercy for Your tormentors when You uttered,

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Luke 23:34

In the midst of unbearable suffering, 

You chose forgiveness.

Your decision has always served 

as a reality check for me in my own

daily walk of faith.  It has often been a real struggle for

me sometimes to forgive people, especially those

 who seem to go out of their way to make life

miserable for others. 

However, I have come to realize that the bitterness

and resentment I sometimes feel towards certain people

 is really no different from the blind hatred in

the hearts of those who nailed Your

palms to the cross.

Four years ago, after my husband walked out on me,

putting an end to an emotionally and mentally

abusive marriage, it was almost as if

 You opened the door of my

prison cell and said, "Come out. You are free."

  However, I have also come to realize, that

in my continuous pursuit of an

unfettered walk of faith,  

 I need to surrender all that I am to You

every day of my life, and this includes

the willingness to lay down the shackles of

bitterness, as well as all the painful memories of

the past, at the foot of Your cross.

And so today, I choose forgiveness.

Master Of Life

Zemer Levav