The Miracle of Forgivenes

If there's one thing Good Friday and the Easter season is truly about, it's forgiveness. Christians believe God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only son over to be crucified by sinners so as to forgive their sins.

If you're not a Christian, or you're an agnostic, atheist, or just don't know or maybe don't care about religion, you still cannot deny the freedom of being forgiven and forgiving.

Perhaps the most difficult crime or sin to forgive is the murder of a person's child or family member. We might say we would forgive the murderer of our child or another person close to us, but what would we really do if it should happen?

With God's grace, we would hopefully react the way the parents of Abdollah Hosseinzadehdid while attending the public execution of their son's murderer. Mrs. Hosseinzadehdid walked up to her son's killer, Balal Abdullah, slapped him in the face, and then announced to gathered officials and witnesses that she and her husband had forgiven him. Mr. Hosseinzadehdid followed his wife's announcement by removing the noose from Abdullah's neck, sparing him from the execution which is legally acceptable according to shariah law.

On this Good Friday, let's take some time to think about the people in our lives who we might pardon with our own act of forgiveness, or those who we hope would pardon us by forgiving any wrongs we've done to them.