Our Common Need

In the novel, “The Great Hunger,” an outsider moves into a small farming community. He immediately put out a “no trespassing” sign, and he refused any efforts at friendship from his new neighbors. One day a little child from the town climbed underneath his fence to pet his dog. But the dog is vicious and ends up killing the little girl.

As you can imagine, anger spread throughout the small town. When the outsider went to town no one would talk to him, and store clerks refused to wait on him. When spring came, no one would even sell him seed. 

In the end, the father of the little girl walked over and planted his field for him. This act of kindness is too much for the anguished outsider. “Why—you of all people?” he asks. The father answered, “To keep God alive in my heart.”

I don’t know how the father could have found the strength to reciprocate with love. But I do know we all share the basic human need for forgiveness. And we all share the need of being able to forgive. When we hold on to hatred, bitterness, and enmity, we damage our own souls. I honestly don’t know whether I would do as well as the father in this story. But I certainly see the beauty in it. I have seen time and again that for the person who had been wronged, being able to forgive, sets them free.  

Let us pray: Loving God, we thank you for your love, your forgiveness, your mercy, and your grace. Help us to live in light your light. Give us the strength and courage to forgive as we have been forgiven. Open us then to your healing and to new and abundant life. Amen.