The root of…forgiveness?

Today Brooke and I began reading together the book called “The Hiding Place”.  Corrie ten Boom is a survivor of Nazi brutality.  It’s hard to go on through the rest of my day and not give thought to this story; this peice of history.  I find most amazing that it is the story of such cruelty that we see the scope of God’s forgiveness.  Corrie ten Boom survived the concentration camp and later finds herself face to face with one of the guards from the camp.  She is there given an opportunity from God to show His grace.  It is easy for us to speak of forgiveness until we are the ones hurt unjustly.  Corrie  had been teaching in Germany in 1947, when she was approached by one of the cruelest former Ravensbrück camp guards. She was reluctant to forgive him, but prayed that she would be able to. She wrote that,

For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

She also wrote that in her post-war experience with other victims of Nazi brutality, it was those who were able to forgive who were best able to rebuild their lives.  Wow!  Forgiveness is more than a mandate from God.  It seems to be the root of the flower we call life.  There is no beauty apart from this.