Loving and giving

I love stories of redemption. There are lots of them in the Bible, of course, but I love any of them. Les Miserables? Check. A Tale of Two Cities? Only the greatest Dickens ever.

And you might not think so, but there are plenty of modern books that I find attractive for the same reason. I've talked about the Attolia books at my personal blog quite a bit. One of the reasons I love the second book, The Queen of Attolia, so much is that I see it as a story of redemption. The Winter Prince, by Elizabeth Wein, is also an amazing story of betrayal and love and forgiveness (and it's based on the Arthurian legends!).

The obvious reason for me to love this type of story is that I need redemption and forgiveness. Stories where characters do awful things and are forgiven can show God's love reflected in a human way. They give me hope that my mistakes too can be erased, that I am not given up on.

But I think there's another reason I love them. Just as much as I need to be forgiven, I need to forgive. Can I be the Bishop from Les Miserables? Can I be Gen or Lleu? If someone comes to me and asks me for forgiveness and love, can I do that?

Forgiveness has been on my mind recently, as Great Lent has begun for us Orthodox Christians with a service called Forgiveness Vespers. We ask every member of our parish for forgiveness and then we have to grant it to them as well. Without the washing clean of this time, the joy of the Resurrection cannot come.

So I'd like to challenge us all to try to both ask for and grant forgiveness, to be humble and honest and loving.