Living Parables

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I've been thinking again about Hosea's prophecy:  How God gave His word to the people in a parable that Hosea lived before them.

It gives me new light on something I've long noticed, listening to the daily news.

It has often happened (just to cite the most notable instance) that some person in a news-story is grief-stricken.  In our society, it's often the parent of a murder-victim.  It has amazed me how often, even weeping, a grieving parent will say, "I have to forgive him," or "I am going to forgive him," about the murderer.

I've even heard stories where a parent has befriended the murderer, visiting him in prison, advocating for him at parole-hearings, "adopting" him on his release from prison: loving the murderer of their child.

We all know how powerful was the Christian witness of the Amish community, after their daughters were slaughtered in their school-house.  Because it was a high-profile mass-murder, the news went around the world.how they grieved for, and supported, and comforted the family of the man who murdered their children.

But even in "secular" mass shootings, we hear the grief-stricken speak forgiveness.  Even in the many less news-worthy individual shootings, or other devastating crimes against people, it's amazing how many of the deeply-grieved say they forgive.

Forgiveness is not always as definitive a "Christian witness" as it was by the Amish.  Some forgivers reference their Christian faith; some don't.  There's not always a reason given.  No doubt some forgive for other reasons than Jesus' teaching and Example.  I've heard Moslem victims of car-bombings say they forgive the bomber.

It's always seemed to me that doesn't matter.  The spirit of forgiveness is "out there," operating in people's hearts.  The spirit of forgiveness is Jesus' spirit.  More than whether people acknowledge Him, the point is that He is "at work" among us, as He said He'd be, whether or not we acknowledge Him.

It is, for us individually, the choice between life and death that we acknowledge Him...fully, continually, devotedly.  But He is present and manifest and ruling among men, whether or not we choose to see Him.  Being able to see Him present and working is one joy of acknowledging Him.

When we do, we see Him enacting living parables around us, among us, of His Word to us.  His salvation, in Hosea.  His forgiveness, in grieving parents.

Praise You, Father !!  Thank you, our beloved King.