In The Knight

Forgive This!

I was seven when something went wrong in my parent’s marriage. Shortly after, my father left my life. He just disappeared.  I remember him visiting a couple of times, but then those visits became less and less frequent, and then eventually stopped altogether.  We wouldn’t speak again until I was seventeen years old.

Growing up without my father was hard. I cannot even begin to explain the impact that not having him there had on my life. I loved my dad greatly, as many young boys do, and looked up to him. I still remember going to amusement parks with him, getting my hair cut, or riding in his GTO. Not surprisingly, I do not remember anything bad about my time with him. I also remember thinking very clearly that I had done something wrong to make him leave.

However, this story has a happy ending!  God truly worked a miracle in my life and today, I am reconciled to my father. It is a process that has taken years - trust had to be established and I had to allow him back in. Over a course of time, talks, visits and prayer on both our parts, things are better between us. Without God, this would never have been possible.  It’s clear to me now that God that used me and my stepbrothers to lead our father back to Christ. It was God who made it clear to my father that he was forgiven and it was God that gave me the strength to forgive!

In the book of Luke, Jesus tells us: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”  (Luke 6:37). 

Many of us have had people in our lives that have wronged us. All too often, that person was a loved one, a close friend, or a trusted partner.  Even though the thought of forgiving them can seem impossible, it’s something that can be done with God’s help.