Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25 (NRSV)
Bonnie Penner Witherall (2002)
“I forgive them”
On the morning of 21 November 2002, American nurse Bonnie (31) answered a knock at the door of the medical clinic where she had worked for eight years. It was based at an evangelical mission in Sidon, Lebanon, and the clinic was part of the Unity Centre that also housed a chapel for worship services.
On opening the door, Bonnie was confronted by a lone gunman who shot her in the head three times. She was killed instantly. Her only “wrong” appears to have been speaking of Jesus to Muslim children when she and her colleagues dispensed food to them and ran Sunday School meetings.
Bonnie’s husband, Gary, said at her funeral, “Whoever did this crime, I forgive them … because God has forgiven me.”
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
C S Lewis, The Weight of Glory