Forgiveness

One of the hardest things for a lot of people is to forgive someone. I would even say that it is easier to apologize than it is to forgive, at least for me. As we draw closer to the holiday season (which for so(me), started in the fall), you’ve probably heard the phrase “real meaning of Christmas”, unless you live under a rock. Every time this phrase comes up, there is some sort of cheesy quote, such as, “having the Christmas spirit and spreading joy” or even “Jesus’ birth”. I feel like a lot of times we coordinate Christmas and the birth of Christ a little too much. For me, I often forget about the reason that He was born. It is so important to remember that He was born to save. He came and showed us how to live a perfect, love-filled life. Something else I think we often don’t reflect on enough is the fact that, in order for God to send His Son to earth to be crucified, He has to forgive us. Just think about it this way: imagine you created the world. You provided the people among the world you created with all that they needed. Then, all of a sudden, they started to disobey you, crave the power that you held, and see themselves as better than their creator. How would that make you feel? I know for me I’d probably be like, “nope, you’re not allowed into eternal perfection with me, you blew it the first time.” But the thing is, this is us, literally. We disobeyed (and continue to do so) our Creator, thinking that we, somehow think that we are wiser than the One who controls everything. My youth pastor/Bible teacher was speaking during youth group the other night and said something I hadn’t thought of before. He pretty much said something along the lines of, “students always asks me, ‘how would life be if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned?’ and the reality is, it wouldn’t be better than it is now. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, He doesn’t see the sin in us, for He passed it to the cross. All He sees is His Son.” It’s crazy how He, knowing that we would sin, still created us. He could’ve just spent eternity with the trinity, as He did before He created anything. A lot of people would claim that Jesus defeating death, and raising from the dead is the greatest miracle of all time, but I would beg to differ. If God couldn’t have forgiven us, He couldn’t have died for us, therefore I believe that God forgiving us for how we turned against him, is the greatest miracle of all time.

-Jack Hilsher

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you”

Colossians 3:13(NIV)