The power of forgiveness

Remember Jen, the Prior Fat Girl I wrote about just a few weeks ago? The same week that I wrote the post, she had a terrible tragedy in her family.

Her mom Kim took an evening walk and decided to push her grandchild around the residential neighborhood in a stroller. A neighbor didn't see Kim, backed over her, and killed her. Kim pushed the stroller as far away as she could so her grandbaby wasn't hit. This tragedy has shaken the family to the core.

This story has been followed by all the news stations. In news, we cover terrible things pretty regularly but it's always worse when you know and have a connection with the person. Jen's family has been very brave in talking with the media to share their story--all the while stressing they know this was a horrible accident and they do not blame their neighbor for taking their mother away from them.

The neighbor is an immigrant with a large extended family-- and he brought all of that family with him to the funeral and memorial service. They took up an entire pew. In the middle of the funeral, Jen's family got up, went to the back of the church, and had a hugging session with his family emphasizing their forgiveness. Witnesses say there wasn't a dry eye in the church.

Later that evening, on National Night Out, Jen's neighborhood met up to finish the walk that Kim never did. And they had the neighbor right out front pushing the grandbaby in a stroller. Lots of tears. Lots of hugs. As you can imagine, it was a very emotional experience for all involved and even the reporters remarked how unusual this was that the story ended in a hug and not a lawsuit. This example of faith went so much further than zealous missionary campaigns or any amount of street evangelism ever could....so much so that skeptical reporters kept talking about it.

People profess faith and forgiveness all the time, but only rarely do we see such blatant examples of faith in action. I've always believed if people lived like this instead of devoting time to "faith causes" like posting the 10 commandments everywhere, outlawing headscarves, or shunning Harry Potter... the world would be a much better place.