The Power of Forgiveness

"Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. As Christ forgave you, so also do you" (Colossians 3:13).

Among all the virtues that can be found in man, forgiveness is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most beautiful. The ability to overcome hatred, bitterness, and offenses received, and return love instead, exalts the human soul, raising it to truly heavenly dimensions.

An extraordinary case in this regard is that of Kim Phuc. On June 8, 1972, his town in South Vietnam was attacked with napalm bombs. She was only nine years old when she was cruelly burned. A famous photograph, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Photojournalism in 1973, shows her running naked and desperate while her skin burned.

Kim underwent seventeen skin graft surgeries and her recovery took many years. During that time, a relative of hers took her to a Christian church where she gave her life to the Lord Jesus Christ. She managed to survive, although the marks were left forever on her body.

Thirty years later, she had an encounter with the pilot who dropped the bomb that destroyed her family and caused her so much pain and suffering for endless years. To the stunned gaze of everyone around her, she Kim forgave him. She smiled at him and gave him a hug. In this way, she taught everyone that you can live with indelible marks on her body, but with a clean soul.

Then she referred to the following biblical text: "For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of those who live" (Psalms 56:13). And then she pronounced the following moving words: "It was the fire from the bombs that burned my body; it was the skill of the doctors that repaired my skin… But it was the power of God that healed my heart". (Pr. Jose R. Frontado / Venezuela).

Design downloaded from free website templates.