A Forgiving Spirit

At her gate this morning, the Swallow sent one of her young ones off to school then cast her eyes to the plants at the side and saw, to her dismay, that a huge part of her pothos plant was missing from its pot!

The initial reaction was shock.  What happened?  Where did most of the plant go?  Silly questions, as if what's left of the plant could answer...

Then came disbelief.  Why steal a plant?  One has heard of money, jewels, even unmentionables being stolen, but a plant?  Why did he have to steal a plant?  Her plant?

Then grief hit her.  All her hard work...gone...just like that...and it was growing well too...new shoots were showing...

How could he do that?  Why didn't he stop to think how she would have felt...how could he?  So inconsiderate.  All he had to do was ask, not that the Swallow would have given him, well, maybe she would have shared, that's what she has been taught to do, and she knows it is the right thing to do.  He could have checked with her and hear her response, right?  He could have asked and given her a choice, right?

More and more thoughts like these assailed her.  She could feel bitterness slowly building up in her heart, but praise be to the Lord, she heard that still small Voice...it's just a plant...forgive him...just as I have forgiven you...

How does one learn to have a forgiving spirit?  By learning from the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was sinless, without spot or blemish, the perfect sacrifical Lamb who was slain to take away the sins of man.  He did not have to die for man - He was the Son of God, yet He did die, and such a cruel death, rejected by those He came to save - because He loved the Swallow and the rest of mankind, and He forgave them.

ABOVE ALL by Michael W Smith

Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began.

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth.

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me -
Above all.

When one has been touched by that kind of great love and forgiveness, one can only ask, "Please, Lord, help me to forgive too..."