The Grace of Forgiveness

I hope your hearts were woven with the golden thread of the Christmas Spirit and that it is still lingering in you and bringing you peace and joy.

In December, I suggested we begin with ourselves this Christmas, by honoring, regarding and caring for ourselves – offering us a Gift of Grace.  This process begins the healing process, which then helps us to extend love to others.  If you recall, this aligns with the philosophy of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary (Blog of June 14, 2012): if we repent and reach forgiveness, we can then extend love to others, which, in turn, provides the ability for those to reach forgiveness and to extend love to others.

I’d like to share a poem with you that I wrote when I first began researching Grace:

Forgiveness

There’s something that has come to me,

And, I’ve searched for very long…

In the pit of all our beings,

Is a hatred so very strong.

The hatred stems from trivial things

We’ve believed and come to know…

Through fear and anger, it spills outside ourselves,

Yet, it is we for whom the hatred grows.

Somehow we thought we were less than…

Somehow not good enough…

The deepest Seed inside ourselves

Gets buried in the rough.

Layers and layers have thickened now,

With words that we all know…

The Seed of love is hidden now,

Beneath the dark and frozen snow.

The words we learned were filled with doubt,

“You don’t, you won’t, you can’t…”

The pain of anxiety and hopelessness…

Runs through us like a haunting chant.

Forgiveness is so hard to do,

And, we always look outside,

But, the one who needs it most,

Is the tiny Child inside.

It’s so hard to love ourselves,

With all the ugliness we hold…

We spit, we taunt, we deny ourselves,

No matter what we have been told.

The miracle is that we hold within,

That tender Seed of love…

It carries forth the tree of life…

It’s nourished from Above.

So unwilling are we to accept,

And acknowledge the beauty of…

Our deepest, our only self,

The sweetest Seed called love.

Why do we hide it, oh so deep,

Shut it and keep it at bay…

Why do we bury it under layers…

Pushing it so far away.

My God, My Creator, what have we done…

Why do we beat so hard,

Why do we look upon ourselves,

With so very little regard.

Forgiveness is a spiral,

That heals us along the way,

It cleanses the deep-seated hatred,

And offers us an awakening new day.

This is a Gift to understand,

To begin to know the Truth…

You ask for our dedication…

You taught us in the Book of Ruth.

Your Grace has been Your Gift,

Forgiveness is what You do…

Teach us, Lord, to have the courage,

Help us to do this…for You.

 

                                                                                                            May 18, 2003

I know this may take time to digest, so I will pause here and leave you with this thought: In Ephesians 4:32, the Apostle Paul asks us: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”