Wilson: forgive

Sunday, October 28, 2012
    Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles
Meditation:
    Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
    —Romans 12:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [On his experiences during internment by the Japanese during WWII] When I muttered “Forgive them,” I wondered how far I was being dramatic, and if I really meant it; because I looked at their faces as they stood round, taking it in turn to flog me, and their faces were hard and cruel, and some of them were evidently enjoying their cruelty. But, by the Grace of God, I saw those men not as they were, but as they had been. Once they were little children playing with their brothers and sisters—happy in their parents’ love, in those far-off days before they had been conditioned by their false nationalist ideals, and it is hard to hate little children. So I saw them not as they were, but as they were capable of becoming, redeemed by the power of Christ, and I knew that I should say “Forgive.”
    ... Leonard Wilson (1897-1970), from a broadcast address, 1946, in A Treasury of the Kingdom: an anthology, Emmeline Alethea Blackburn, ed., Oxford University Press, 1954 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart to forgive my enemies. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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