The Greatest Gift

I have been blessed by the greatest gift of all-the gift of forgiveness. It was and is continually being bestowed on me by my wife. It is not the kind of forgiveness a spouse bestows based on the little irritations of daily life together. It is the forgiveness of the ultimate kind; a forgiveness required when the heart is broken and wrenched from its moorings; the kind that shakes the whole foundation of a marriage and of life itself—and I am its unworthy recipient. It is a glad thing to be the recipient of money, of time, of attention, of a smile, but there is no greater gift a giver can give than forgiveness. I tell you of my own forgiven state only to remind myself and you that without forgiveness there is no true gift and with forgiveness no other gift has meaning. Forgive in the little and big things of life and your own poverty will not matter-you have given your all; You have exceeded the combined alms of Gates and Ford and Rockefeller and Carnegie and Melon and Buffet. In our forgiving, we destroy enmity, break down walls of separation, of bias and prejudice and hatred. We lubricate the wheels of society and smooth the path of our children’s children. Far beyond “Pay it Forward” and “Random Acts of Kindness,” forgiveness shines her beacon of hope to a world gone mad with vengeance. She cries her wisdom to us all, rallying us to her banner, recruiting us into her healing army, her gentle storm troopers. May we know the joy of forgiving and being forgiven this day. 1.8.13