Forgiveness

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“Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you?  In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely.  Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness.  And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear.  Nothing that you remember that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.II.1)

Forgiveness is, at first, something that we do for ourselves.  Then it is something that we do for others.  For giving and receiving are one in the tenets of A Course in Miracles.

When we forgive, our whole world will open up to bless us.  Our grievances, on the other hand, hide the light of the world in us.  We cannot see accurately or well in darkness.  We see only in light.  And forgiveness is our function, the means in which we will know happiness and spread salvation, not only for ourselves but also for others.

We will value those whom we have forgiven more than anything else in our world, for is it not our significant others who offer the greatest challenge to us for forgiveness?  We will value them even more when we have totally forgiven, holding nothing back.  The ways of this world would tell us that we need to protect ourselves from future hurt by not forgetting their words or deeds against us.  But A Course in Miracles advises us that this is a defense, and defenses do what they would defend against.

So the only way out, the only way back to the light in us, is to drop grievances.  Just to let them go.

Then we will know a joy that has eluded us until now.  We will know peace.  We will know harmony.  And we will know love.  Really, for the first time.