Some days just feel messy. Clashes, mistakes, misunderstandings… it all piles up. By the time the day ends, I find myself holding onto frustration, regret, and sometimes hurt. Those are the moments when forgiveness – both giving and receiving – feels hard.
Today, someone said something simple yet profound that captures my imagination:
“Our God’s kinda big, isn’t He? And He’s pretty good at loving us.”
It came up in a conversation about forgiveness. In the Bible, Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive. Seven times? That feels generous. But Jesus replies, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (or in some translations, seventy times seven).
That’s an exhausting amount of forgiveness! But maybe that’s the point. Jesus isn’t giving Peter a number to count up to, He’s telling him to stop counting altogether. God doesn’t keep score when He forgives us, so why do we struggle to do the same for others?
I love that God’s forgiveness is limitless, but when it comes to me forgiving, there tend to be conditions. I struggle the most when I feel someone should be sorry but isn’t. I don’t need justice or revenge, but sometimes I do long for remorse, for an apology that never comes. God’s forgiveness flows freely. Mine sometimes hesitates, waiting for an apology that never comes.
And yet, if forgiveness is part of God’s big love for me, then maybe I can take small steps toward extending it too.
That doesn’t mean excusing hurt or pretending things didn’t happen. (Forgiving and staying are two different things, but that’s a thought for another time.) But it does mean choosing not to carry the weight of resentment. It means trusting that God, who is big and pretty good at loving us, will help me try again tomorrow.
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