Incredible Forgiveness

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By Tracy Phua, 24, Singapore

In March this year, I attended a Pastor’s conference held in the state of Jharkhand, India. Amidst the countless stories told of God’s faithfulness and grace in their lives, one story stood out.

Vimala is a petite woman. Her strong facial features belied the trauma she is going through. As she stood in front of the 60-strong crowd, she spoke in fluent Hindi. But her sentence broke mid-stream and she began to weep. Biting her lip and blinking away tears, she carried on her story. She told of how her husband who is a pastor had been kidnapped three months ago at a village not far from where we were. Her husband was cycling home when he met two men who looked like they’ve lost their way. So he led them to their destination. Upon arrival, the two men beat him unconscious. Since then, Vimala had been waiting for her husband’s return. She recalled with great pain her last encounter with him.

Following the attack, the kidnappers called Vimala to demand a ransom in return for her husband’s life. The calls came frequently. However, as a pastor’s wife who barely had enough to feed her two sons, she couldn’t fork out the money. She turned to God in prayer and waited . . . for a day, a week, a month. Soon, the kidnappers stopped their calls.

Wiping away the tears, Vimala shared with us her greatest fear—her husband might be dead. Meanwhile, she had taken up the responsibility of pastoring the church that her husband had set up. At the same time, she performed the role of both father and mother to her children.

As I listened to her story with the help of an interpreter, I was struck that she did not once blame the kidnappers or God. Instead she was constantly praising God for keeping her children and her safe, and for giving them the strength and courage to move on. She knows that all that has happened is in accordance to God’s plan and she submits to His will fully.

Her story brought tears to my eyes. Although it was spoken in a foreign language, I could feel her pain, her hurt and the underlying faith that sustains her. Her story reminded me of the biblical story Joseph.

In Genesis 37 to 50, we see a case study on forgiveness. Joseph’s brother hated him so much that they wanted to kill him. In the end, they sold him into slavery. In the land of Egypt, Joseph went through a lot of hardships before he rose to power. If anyone has a reason to be embittered, Joseph had every reason. However, when Joseph’s brother asked for his forgiveness, he said in Genesis 50:20, “ You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Through Joseph’s and Vimala’s life, we learn an important lesson on forgiveness: we can forgive others because our comfort and security does not lie in the hands of the people who have caused us harm but in the hands of our Maker.

To forgive someone is humanly impossible; we need divine help. By engaging in a deepening relationship with our Father in Heaven, we will be able to say, “Lord, forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12).