The Key to Freedom
Forgiveness is the key to healing from physical or emotional abuse, neglect or betrayal. It’s also, first and aways our choice.
Forgiveness is the key to set you free. (M.H. Puccini
Originally this image showed a plump red heart on a white background with a black keyhole. I accidentally hit the wrong key in Photoshop and inverted all the colors.
It was a fortunate mistake.
This image is much more powerful.
The Blue Heart’s Symbolic Meaning
The Black Background. When we don’t forgive someone, it darkens our emotional world and keeps the pain alive. The other person’s past words and actions still have tremendous power in our lives. The offender can be dead for years, yet a single bad memory in the morning can ruin our whole day.
The White Keyhole. It looks is like light shining into the darkness. God offers hope and deep emotional healing to each of us.
The Blue Heart. The color blue symbolizes depression. This heart is also caved in, hollowed out and empty. There’s no life here.
Corrie ten Boom’s Story
Corrie ten Boom was in her mid-fifties when the Nazis invaded and occupied Holland during World War II. She, her older sister Betsy and their 80-year-old father Caspar successfully hid Jews in their home until the family was betrayed to the Gestapo. Her father died while in custody and these two courageous middle-aged sisters were sent to a Nazi Concentration Camp.
Only Corrie survived. Her sister Betsy died in the camp’s hospital. Due to a clerical error, Corrie was released from Ravensbruck Concentration Camp one week before all the women of her age group were gassed.
After the war, Corrie opened a home in Holland for people brutalized by the Nazis. During that time, she discovered a powerful spiritual truth: Those who forgave their tormentors healed. Those who didn’t remained traumatized.
Jesus didn’t ask us to forgive our enemies to bless those who hurt us. Instead, forgiveness heals us
What Forgiveness Doesn’t Mean
Just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean you have to put yourself in their power again.
This cowboy apparently enjoys handling poisonous reptiles, but he takes no chances.
When standing in a snake pit, it’s wise to wear protective clothing and special bite-resistant boots and handle the snakes using a long, hooked pole, like this one does.
Or an even better alternative? Don’t go into the snake pit in the first place.
Unfortunately, cruel people in our past sometimes remain unrepentant. Jesus calls us to forgive, but he never asks us to put ourselves back under their power The goal is to avoid bullies and abusers, not snuggle up to them.
So forgive, then ask the Holy Spirit what you should do.
My Spiritual Point
Forgiving someone who’s hurt you is tough. But it’s also one of the most powerfully freeing things we can do as human beings. That’s why Jesus commanded us to keep forgiving in Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV). We forgive in order to heal. Because true forgiveness has the power to free us from a painful past.
Remember too, forgiving is not an emotion, it’s a choice. When we are willing to forgive, the Holy Spirit steps in to help.
The original image of the heart and key is by Morguefile.com and the other images are from Pixabay.com.
Resources:
Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place is an amazing testimony of one Christian family’s courage in the face of great evil.
Here’s a last thought from Joyce Meyers.
Harboring Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping your enemy will die. (Joyce Meyer)
Grammar lesson: the word “unforgiveness” is found in Collin’s dictionary but not in some other dictionaries. Apparently it’s in the process of becoming an established English word. “Unforgiven” is also absent from most on-line dictionaries—sorry Clint, but it is.
