A Lesson in Forgiveness

My sister called me the other day in a panic. There was a helicopter that had been circling around her house for an extended period of time. Her mind automatically goes into worse-case-scenario mode and immediately assumes there is a boogieman on the loose in the neighborhood and the chopper is hunting him down, and he's probably hiding in her backyard. She's a bit paranoid {it runs in the family}.

Later she tells me there had actually been a serious accident on the road just behind her home. A woman under the influence of drugs and alcohol was driving around 80 mph down the residential street, lost control and ran over a grandma pushing her 3-yr old granddaughter in a stroller on their way to the park. The chopper on the hunt for the boogieman was actually the life flight looking for a place to land to rescue the victims.

My sister forwarded an email to me that was sent by the mother of the 3-yr old. Her mother and daughter had miraculously survived the accident, though grandma, who shielded the child from being seriously injured, was is critical condition and the 3-yr old kept recalling how scared she was of the traumatic event she had just endured. The mother was asking for prayers for her loved ones for peace and healing, but the real clincher was when she also asked her neighbors and friends to also pray for the woman who caused the accident, and her family, as they were probably also suffering with a loved one held captive by addiction and the pain this person had caused others.

The email made me cry. I think my natural response would have been anger and revenge, but this woman sought forgiveness after an event that had just turned her innocent mother and daughter's world upside down in an instant. What a testimony of humility and compassion.