photo credit: iowa_spirit_walker

Often our image and understanding of God is affected by own experiences. Our understanding of the meaning of the word “Father” is affected because our own father was abusive or we grew up without knowing our own fathers. As sad as it may sound there are indeed many people who can not put words “loving” and “father” in one sentence.

When we talk about his justice and forgiveness we often see him as tyrant or unmerciful CEO- not without fault of our preachers, pastors and priests. He is going to punish us real bad if we don’t say 100s of Lord’s Prayers.

Finally when we talk about relationship with him, often it is a “one way street” type of relationship. We ask favors and fail to listen to what He has to say. This type of relationship of course is doomed and will leave us disappointed, as any relationship that is not build on love.

God’s love for us was manifested in a most convincing way when his only Son died for our sins on the Cross. Our response to his great forgiveness must begin with love.

Take Peter for example. According with the Gospel of St. John (John 21:15-17), the first time Peter spoke to Jesus it was answering Jesus’ questions if Peter loved him. Was Peter’s heart and conscious burdened with the knowledge that just few days ago he made a “u-turn” away from Christ, by saying “I don not know the man” (Matthew 26:72)? Didn’t he needed to hear from Jesus that he was forgiven for betraying him? Why on earth would Jesus be asking Peter if Peter loved him?!!

Peter did not need to hear he was forgiven. He already knew that! He witnessed Jesus performing miracles and heal the sick on countless of occasions. Peter hear him say “your sins are for given” to many of the healed.

What probably Peter needed, as we do as well, is to open our spiritual eyes- something that can not be done without love. To receive and fully appreciate God’s love, we need to love Him too.

Many men and women are convinced that abortion was that “u-turn” away from God. Our journey back to him should begin with love. At the end of this journey we will discover that although we may have made a u-turn away from God, God did not leave us nor did He ever stopped loving us (John 3:16 ).

photo credit: jonathanrperkins

This forgiveness that you are searching for, is a complicated and some times lengthy process. During this process you will need to find forgiveness from God, forgiveness from your child and of course you will have to forgive yourself. This journey is not easy and certainly is unique for every one. While many may have walked a similar journey, no one really was “wearing your shoes”. For some pieces of the puzzle fall into places rather quickly. For others it takes long time and good amount of internal struggle.

In the upcoming weeks we will publish several articles that will delve into this process forgiveness. We don’t pretend to offer an “bulletproof” answer that would suit every single person. However we hope that our readers will help us along the way by sharing their experience and testifying that you are not alone on this path.

In our first series we will be focusing on God’s forgiveness as we will walk you through some examples from the Holy Scriptures. If you are already a regular visitor to our website, we invite you to participate in the comments- good can use you and what you have experienced to help and heal other people. If this is your first time to our website, make sure to subscribe so you will not miss our future posts.