Although Tasian Nkundiye murdered many of Laurencia Niyogira’s family in the Rwandan genocide, they are now next door neighbours. He said, “Ever since I wrote to her from prison, confessing to my crimes and asking her for forgiveness, she has never once called me a killer . . . She has set me free.”
Forgiveness and restoration lie at the heart of a project involving six reconciliation villages where victims and perpetrators live together. One person leading this project remarked that for Rwanda to heal, people need to “confront their innermost feelings . . . so suffering and anger” don’t rise up again.
This hard but hopeful modern-day story reminds me of Hosea in the Old Testament, whom the Lord asked to foster forgiveness in his own home. When Hosea’s wife left him, God asked him to love her as He “loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1).
Note that Hosea made a list of conditions for them both to follow: she’d live with him for many days; she’d not be promiscuous; he’d act in the same way towards her (v. 3). So too have those in the Rwandan village established a pattern of life that includes conflict resolution and running a farming cooperative together.
Forgiveness involves a journey to freedom, which can be difficult but can also bring joy and fulfilment. Ultimately, all who follow Jesus stand in their identity as those forgiven and freed by His death on the cross.
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
How difficult do you find forgiveness? How can you lean on God to help you in this area?
Forgiving Father, thank You for sending Your Son to save and free me. Help me share the wonder of this gift with others.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Hosea 14:1 captures the theme of the book of Hosea, “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God.” This verse includes a key word of the book—return. Again and again in Hosea we see God, who is faithful and true to His covenant, calling unfaithful Israel to return to Him. The Hebrew word translated “return” (šûb, pronounced shoob) is a common Old Testament term. The verb form appears more than 1,050 times (the twelfth most frequently used verb in the Old Testament), and eighteen times in Hosea. The most theologically rich usages of it concern Israel’s turning to the Lord in repentance, as we see in Hosea 3:5 : “Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.”
Arthur Jackson
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