Once a week we head over to our local home school co-op where Lilla learns with other kids her age subjects such as music, art, physical education and science. She loves to spend the time with the other children, learn some fun and new things and get to spend some time outside of these four walls.
Last week as we were headed there I had a radio station on that was playing a sermon. The sermon was about forgiveness and how it could not only change the forgiven but the forgiver. We didn't hear the whole sermon, as the venue where we meet is not that far from our house but the one part we did hear I remember quite distinctly. It was a story about a man who used to be a mediocre performer at work, very up and down and then he became exceptional. When another employee asked why he replayed a story from his own life. When he was in college he and some friends were playing a game of chicken with themselves and their cars. When it was his turn he was going 100 miles per hour and the other guys were to jump out of the way just in time. One of them didn't. He couldn't get the image out of his head. He dropped out of school, was troubled and never was able to be stable at work. Then one day everything changed. He heard a knock on the door. He answered it to a somewhat familiar woman whom he could not place. She stated she was that boy's mother. She just wanted to say she had forgiven him. It changed everything.
Of course, I started crying. Trying to control my tears I got out of the car and told Lilla we needed to go. She kind of stayed in her seat for a moment. After not moving I told her again we had to go or be late. She looked at me kind of curiously and then started to move toward the door. I hadn't realized she was listening to the program and wanted to hear more. She then simply stated, "I would have forgiven him too."
I was taken aback and said, "You would forgive someone for killing your son, even accidently?"
She said, "I would. That is what God tells us to do, so, I would."
I know it seems simple and she is not a mother yet and can't understand what that means, but it is her simple heart of obedience that really floors me. She really has a heart to obey. When I asked her why she said, "Because I love God, so I obey him."
When I ask her why she states, "God gives us rules because He loves us and he wants to keep us safe so we should obey them."
My prayer is that this love for God will not depart from her, she will never lose a heart that longs to serve a God that loves her. That, all of her days her heart will be moved toward a God that offers hope in despair, gives us strength when we are weak and meets all of our needs.
I hope that for you too.
I remembered this song by one of my all time favorite groups, Caedmon's Call. If you are not familiar with them, do yourself a favor and become familiar with them. They are awesome! I've loved them since I was in college and they have just grown as musicians and songwriters over the years. They write lyrics about real life, questions we all ask and feelings we all go through. They are just an amazing band, in my humble opinion anyway. So, one of the leads wrote this song about a relationship he had and how Love was different than what he thought it would be. He said, "As often as our culture tries to tell us what love is, I thought I would put down a little of what I believe love is not. Love is neither a 30-minute sitcom, nor is it a sappy pop ballad. Rather, it is the most difficult and most profound of human experiences, but thanks to our post-modern culture coupled with our own capacity for sin, it’s often much different than we would think." 