My favortie cup (2nd serving)

My favorite cup (second serving)

Forgiveness, like a cup of coffee, has the unique ability to transfom what was once weary and worn into something fresh and vibrant once more.

 

   

 

 

When it comes to the subject of forgiveness, Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Tutsi (pronounced tootsie) from Rwanda,  has a story you won’t soon forget. 

Her  unbelievable story bgins on April 7^th, 1994, at the time Imamaculle was in her early twenties and  home from college on Easter break.  It was  during this day that the pesident of her native country, Rwanda,  was shot down in his plane and killed.  Consequently, the Hutu (pronounced who-two)  tribe, which is rival of Imacculee’s Tutsi tribe,  went on a torrid killing spree which is now commonly refered to as the Rwandan genocide.  The Hutus blamed the death of the president on the Tutsis’and  claimed they would kill every tribe member in order to take revenge. 

On that terrible spring day she was rushed immediately to a friendly Hutu neighbor’s house, who was a Protestant minister.  Once inside she was taken immediately to a seldom used bathroom in a remote part of the house and locked inside with seven other Tutsi women. It was their only hope to remain safe from the  Hutus who had declared war on her people calling them cockroaches, going from house to house killing everyone from her tribe that they could find. 

For ninety days, she and seven other women stayed trapped in this secret three foot by four foot bathroom, as death lurked right outside the bathroom window.   On one such occasion for two hours, her enemies came looking for her and other Tutsis inside the minister's house, even calling her by name in attempt to frighten her out.  As the Hutus looked thoughout  the house, in desperation Imacculee prayed  this, “ God if you are real don’t let them find the door of the bathroom.”  That moment her faith in God was renewed when her assailants, who once had their hand on the doorknob, never entered the bathroom and then left.

Imacullee and her seven friends would survive the holocaust, however, in those three terrifying months  a staggering one million people died.   The equivalent of three out of four of the entire Tutsi population was wiped out.  Sadly, included in the dead were all of  Immaculee’s family: her father, her mother, grandparents, and two brothers, leaving only her one brother, who was out of the country at the time of the masacare.

Needless to say, you would think that Imaculee would have every reason be bitter and full of rage at this outpouring of evil leveled on her, her family, and her people. This however is not the case .  She claims that her truning point of leaving the hate behind and seeking forgiveness instead happened during those desperate days in that little room.  Imaculee prayed the Lord’s prayer every day for ninety days.

While she was praying the Lord’s prayer over and over again she happened upon  a part she could not pray,  “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”  The reason she could not pray it was because she didn’t want to pray a lie.  She realized after much thought, that the Lord’s prayer originally was a prayer that God Himself our Lord gave us.  So, she turned to the author of that great passage to help her out. 

It was then  in that tiny little bathroom that Imaculee had another epiphany. In her own words, she realized this .... "you being mad at them, you getting angry wanting to do what they are doing doesn’t change a thing."  Something just became clear in that moment, that told her , “everyone has a chance.. to …see the truth.”  In essence what Immaculle did was what Jesus said as He hung on  the cross, " Father forgive them for they know not what they do."  

If  it were not enough, Immaculee felt she needed to forgive the people who were trying to kill her.  What she choose to offer her enemies was forgiveness, not hatred.  For this expressed reason she went to prision to meet the leader of one of the gangs who had sought to take her life. After an awkward pause, they both began to cry as their eyes met and she touched his hand as she said these healing words, “I forgive you.”  Imaculee’s heart eased immediately as she saw the tension release in the man’s shoulders, who once sought to obliterate her and her people.

She concludes her book, Left to Tell…. with these words: “ the love of a single heart can make a world of difference.  I believe that we can heal Rwanda – and our world – by healing on heart at a time.”

The following are truly acts of God: earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and  forgiving those who wrong you.

Swavel