Should I not have pity on that great city of Nineveh where there are more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?
After 2001, we studied Jonah,
That beleaguered prophet
Sent to the Assyrians,
The al-Qaeda of its day,
A people that delighted in
Destruction in perverse ways.
What New Yorker would want
To go to Afghanistan
With a message from God?
Jonah rationally went as far as he could
The other way.
Jonah knew that there was pity available,
That the hand of judgment might be stayed.
For the mothers of the jumping men:
Does full pardon for the terrorists
Appeal to you?
More recent: for the mothers of beheaded children:
Does full pardon for the executioner
Appeal to you?
God’s ways are not our ways.
Forgiveness is about us though...we need to forgive so that the bitter root doesn't grow and eat us alive, accomplishing what our "terrorist" wanted. Justice is for the courts an ultimately can be left to God who never forgets. Just my thoughts...
ReplyDeleteI fully agree. But I think forgiveness is of God, and he gives it. But, humanly speaking, I get Jonah's hesitation. And note that I haven't signed up for any missions trips to Afghanistan, nor spent much effort trying to reach the Taliban or even pray for those in ISIS. I could probably do the last, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not of the forgive and forget crew either. The gift of discernment is there so we don't walk into situations where we will be in danger. If we have been called, ten that is different. And obviously without God's forgiveness, we'd all be sunk.
ReplyDeleteJust finished, "AS we Forgive" by Catherine Claire Larson. Stories of the Rwandan genocide and forgiveness. Incredible humbling.
ReplyDeleteAdded to my list of books. Thanks so much!
ReplyDelete