Forgiveness: like water rushing.......

If you were to tell me what forgiveness tastes like, what would you say?  A perfectly ripe strawberry still warm from the sun?

If I asked what forgiveness felt like, what would you say?  The rushing of cool water over my muscles tired at the end of a hard day's work?

If I asked what forgiveness looked like, what would you say?  A sunset so exquisite that peace descends and the day is put to rest?

Forgiveness is the breath of new life in a place that has, even momentarily, tasted the bitterness of dying.  Forgiveness is the experience of running free across fields in the sunshine after months and months in a hospital room.  Forgiveness is the laughter of joy which pours forth in relief after the crushing weight of responsibility or guilt.

When Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus in the night, he is told that in order to see the kingdom of God he must be born again.....or from above depending on your choice as a translator.  Nicodemus asks the most logical of questions, How can a man who has grown old be born again?  Must he enter agin his mother's womb?

We may laugh at the questions, but Nicodemus hits the nail on the head.  If you are going to be born again, you must go back to the beginning, to the source of your life and start all over.  If you are to see the kingdom of God you will need to go back to the source - to the Creator alone - with a slate wiped clean, that is, with forgiveness written on your forehead and in your heart.

It is the forgiveness that pushes the start button one more time.  It is forgiveness that sends you out into the world for another go round, another opportunity to be about God's mission in the world. It is forgiveness that puts breath in your lungs and strength in your limbs and opens your eyes and ears to the Spirit moving among us.  It is forgiveness that makes the blind see and the lame walk.

So.  Forgiveness is not a throw away line with little consequence.  It is a game changer, a life giver and a commitment by both the one forgiving and the one forgiven to begin again from the beginning.

Forgiveness has no substance, no taste or color without first walking through judgment and confession.  Unless there is the taste of death, we do not recognize the taste of life.

Forgiveness is life and therefore a way of living.  It is not something you put in a drawer or a scrapbook, it is something that changes the way you breathe and move and have your being.

It really, truly is a big deal.