by David J. Stewart | Click HERE For Background Music In A New Window
I'd just like to share a few thoughts with you that
have helped me over the years. Do you remember the Oklahoma City bombing
in 1995? It was horrible. I was actually sitting fifteen miles away
in a training class for the Postal Service when the explosion took place.
We actually drove by and saw the damage, it was horrific. We saw a church
roof which had collapsed a mile a way. Hundreds of buildings had broken
windows and damage. Today, after all these years, there are still MANY
unanswered questions about what actually happened that day. I was there
and still remember the local news reports for the first few days "confirming"
that two undetonated explosive devices had been found "inside" the building.
It wasn't a truck bomb that blew that building up.
Howbeit, 168 people died in that tragic event. Tim McVeigh was tried and convicted for the crime. Years later, I had heard one morning on the news that Timothy McVeigh was to be executed that afternoon in Indiana. Families of the victims were being asked if McVeigh's execution was going to bring "closure" to their suffering and anger. Some people said yes, others no. But one particular woman who's son had been killed in the bombing said something amazing which stuck in my mind. She said, "I look at this whole matter like a snake bite. When you get bit by a snake, you can hunt it down to kill it, while it's poison is killing you at the same time. Or you can tend to your own wounds, let the snake go, and live." She had chosen to let the snake go, and McVeigh's death was a non-event to her. In her mind she had forgiven McVeigh long ago and had placed him into God's hands. You see friend, hating someone else is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. In reality, your killing yourself.
Life is too short to live with a burden of hatred. We must let the snakes in our life go. God will avenge us (Romans 12:19; 1st Thessalonians 4:6). This is justice. If you get a speeding ticket, you are going to receive a fine. This has nothing to do with forgiveness. Likewise, the people who hurt us in life will have to answer to God for their evil deeds. If someone who has wronged us seeks to make restitution, then we are to forgive them. If someone wrongs us and refuses to make restitution, then we must place them into God's hands.
So let the snakes go and live. Keep your heart fixed on the love of God and the fact that Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." —Ephesians 4:32
