Forgiveness is never easy, but when it is lived out in an ordinary life it can change a person, a village, and a nation. On November 10, 1993, Today in the Word told the following story:

When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were savagely opposed by a young chief of the Cree Indians named Maskepetoon.

But he responded to the gospel and accepted Christ. Shortly afterward, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father.

Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him.

Confronting the guilty man, he said, “You have killed my father, so now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes.”

In utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed, “My son, now you have killed me!” He meant, of course, that the hate in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief.

How has forgiveness changed your life, and how has that change impacted the people with whom you interact?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis