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About two months ago in Portage La Prairie a teen girl was attacked on her way home one night from a friend’s house. Doctors had to perform emergency brain surgery to save the young girls life after she was beaten and left in a junk yard in Portage. I was shocked to hear such a story from a smaller centre like Portage La Prairie. I was even more surprised when I came to find out that this girls father works for our corps cleaning and maintaining the building.  His name is Byron.

Upon realizing this I went down to the corps late on a Saturday evening when I knew he was working to speak with him. I started to talk to him about what he does at the corps and we took a walk around to the various rooms of the building. The conversation soon turned to focus on how his daughter was coming along.

“I heard about your daughter. That was an awful thing to have happen to her,” I said. His face dropped and tears filled his eyes. I did not know what else to say. So I sat there with this father as he wept for his daughter. He began to share and tell me more of the details of that night, how the accused was known to the family, and some uncertainty about if she would even live. We knelt at the mercy seat at the feet of Jesus and prayed.

He is connected to the corps and is on our roll but does not attend on a regular basis. I was surprised the following Sunday to see him at church. In church that Sunday we had a testimony time. Byron stood up and came to the front, thanked members of the congregation for their prayers and support, and gave an update that his daughter was now out of her coma. He then proceeded to say how he and the community need to forgive the man that did this awful thing to his daughter and leave it in the hands of God.

Byron taught me a lesson that day about forgiveness. I was excited and encouraged to see that he had faith in God and was determined to leave things in God’s hands. Putting myself in his position I ask myself whether I could honestly do the same. I was reminded of the scripture in Colossians 3:12-14 that says,

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

As Christians we are called to forgive as Christ has forgiven us. While in this world, where there is so much corruption in our hearts, quarrels will sometimes arise. But it is our duty to forgive one another, imitating the forgiveness through which we are saved. The net time that I am challenged to forgive I hope I will remember Byron’s testimony.