I read
this post from HTB / Nicky Gumble’s Bible In One Year program and thought I
would share:
When Nelson
Mandela left prison after twenty-seven years and became South Africa’s first
democratically elected president, he called upon his old friend, Desmond Tutu,
to chair The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This commission was a
series of hearings – some of them public – in which both victims and
perpetrators gave testimony about their experiences and actions during
apartheid.
At one of the
hearings, a policeman, called van de Broek, told of how he and his fellow
officers shot an eighteen-year-old youth, then burnt the body. Eight
years later they went back, took the father and forced his wife to watch as he
was incinerated. She was in court to hear this confession and was asked
by the judge what she wanted. She said she wanted van de Broek to go to
the place where they had buried her husband’s body and gather up the dust so
that she could give him a decent burial. Van de Broek agreed.
She then added a
further request. ‘Mr van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I
still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month I would like for him to
come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can be a mother to him.
And I would like Mr van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I
forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know that my
forgiveness is real.’
Spontaneously,
some in the courtroom began singing ‘Amazing Grace’ as the elderly woman made
her way to the witness stand. But van de Broek did not hear the hymn, he
had fainted, overwhelmed.
In this story
truth, love and mercy flow together. Facing up to the truth of what had
happened was the foundation for love and mercy. The same is true with God’s
love – he does not ignore our sin, he chooses to forgive us. In the story
the woman was able to forgive Van de Broek because she chose to forgo her right
to justice. God’s love and mercy is even more extraordinary, because at
the cross there is justice as well as mercy. ‘God is love’ (1 John
4:16) and ‘God is merciful’ (Daniel 9:9), but he is also the God of truth
and the God of justice.
1. Love and truth
2. Love and mercy
3. Love and justice
To read the rest of this incredibly challenging post, go
to http://acs.alpha.org/bioy/commentary/465
Blessings!
Ronell x
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