Living Stewardship Now
Who in your life has injured you, angered you, or hurt you? Don’t wait for their change of heart. Change yours, and run out to meet them on the road of forgiveness.
Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications. All rights reserved.
AMAZING GRACE
After apartheid was abolished in South Africa, special hearings were held to allow victims a voice, and to establish justice and peace. One day an elderly black woman and a white police officer faced each other across a courtroom. The officer, a Mr. van der Broek, had just been found guilty of murdering the woman’s son and her husband. He had come to her home a number of years earlier, shot her son, and burned the body while he and his cronies reveled in the act. Later, he returned and took her husband. For two years, she heard nothing about him. Then van der Broek came and led the woman to a river bank, where she saw her husband bound and beaten on a pile of wood. The last words she heard him say were, “Father, forgive them,” as the officers poured gasoline over him and set him on fire. Justice caught up with Mr. van der Broek. He was found guilty, and it was now time for sentencing. The judge asked the woman, “What should be done to this man who so brutally destroyed your family?” She replied, “I want three things. First, I want to be taken to where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give him decent burial. My husband and son were my only family, so I want, second, for Mr. van der Broek to become my son. I would like him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour on him whatever love I still have within me. Third,” she said, “I would like Mr. van der Broek to know that I forgive him because Jesus Christ died to forgive me.” She walked across the courtroom and embraced him. The policeman fainted, overwhelmed by her response. Then quietly, friends, family, and neighbors—all victims of similar oppression and injustice—began to sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.”
Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications. All rights reserved.
