Forgiveness could be balm for the body, too

The ability to forgive just might improve your marriage, your health and your outlook on life. Those are strong claims for forgiveness

This piece would interest Corrie ten Boom: she was the woman who wrote the Hiding Place--about her and her sister Betsie's arrest and imprisonment in Ravensbrook concentration camp because they had used their home to shelter Jews fleeing the SS.

After the war, she opened a home for victims of the Holocaust, and said that those who were able to forgive their persecuters were able to get on with their lives. Those that didn't weren't--and it "was that simple", as she put it.

But she also spoke of how hard it was for her to forgive the man who turned her family in to the Gestapo for sheltering Jews. She met the man after the war and could not bring herself to extend him her hand--until she asked God for the strength to do it. He granted her wish--and she said she could feel the Love--but it was not hers!!!

This, to me, illustrates how difficult it is to understand true forgiveness--because it is not "natural" for us to let go of our own hurt and anger and replace it with patience and love. God has offered us this grace--but think of what it cost Him!

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