Somewhere Over The Rainbow...

I have this amazing view from my balcony. A cascade of trees surrounding me, and a wild blue sky. Sometimes when the sun sets, I lie down on the floor and gaze up, listening to music. I’ll try to think of nothing, while ending up lost in a sea of thoughts.

Once when I was doing this, an array of blue birds were flying high above me, breaking the clear blue sky in a perfectly synchronized “V” shape.

I hardly noticed at that point, the one little bird, following in pursuit, way behind the rest of the flock. I could tell he was a little lost in his own world, making random twirls and dips. Adrift in his own pace, while still trying to keep up with the rest.

I know what you’re thinking, this little bird is the equivocal symbol of me, and how I see myself. But actually, this little bird reminded me of someone else in my life.

I have come to understand, in the sum of all the very little things I actually do understand, that the very thing we as humans often tend to MISUNDERSTAND, is each other’s individual pace of growth. It’s as if we say, I don’t understand you, because you move in a different pace than I do. And I can’t relate to that.

I was extremely hurt by someone as we all are at times. I was trying to understand the art of forgiveness and how it is infinitely expected of us, regardless of how many times we get hurt. Many people in this world block out love when it is hindered, because love is the most powerful thing on earth, therefore when it breaks it is also the most painful thing on earth.

Please don’t misunderstand, I am in no way referring to a particular form of love. I speak for all the various types of love that could fill the vast array of relationships between people on earth. The famous unrequited love, romantic love, love between a parent and child, a sibling or a friend. Etc.

When you love someone and they hurt you, it’s obviously going to cause you pain.. Many people allow this pain to evade, by filling that with hatred or indifference. They make themselves victims of injustice. And this granted, is a lot easier than truly forgiving.

I read a quote the other day that says “Do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the world and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course, part of us dies too. Or, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.”

This quote was written by the famous Corrie Ten Boom.

She was a watchmaker and a Christian, born and raised in Holland who alongside her father and various other family members, helped many Jews survive during the Nazi Holocaust in World War 2. Like many people at the time who hid Jews and members of resistant groups from the SS soldiers, Corrie alongside her father and sister were found and arrested for their actions.

She lost her father, and watched her sister die before her very own eyes while they were both enslaved and tortured in one of the Nazi concentration camps.

A few days before her sister died, she looked at Corrie and said , “There is no pit too deep that he is not deeper still.” Corrie’s undying faith in God, led her to do truly amazing things in this world. She was one of the few Dutch women to survive the Holocaust. She decided to start her own Ministry in 1946, the year after the war ended, when she was 53 years old. She travelled to many countries speaking her truth and telling her inspirational story. Her pivotal focus was to preach about love and forgiveness.

One day, long after the war, after a church service in Munich, a man approached her who ended up changing the course of her life. She recognized him immediately. He was one of the SS guards at her concentration camp who was responsible for torturing and killing thousands of innocent people. She was struck by the countless dark memories that came back to her all in that one moment. He thanked her for her words on forgiveness and said he had received the beautiful forgiveness and mercy of the Lord for all he had done, and extended his hand out to her, requesting her forgiveness as well.

She described this moment in her famous book, “The Hiding Place” as one of the most difficult things she’d had to do. She wasn't able to move her arm at first. She prayed a silent prayer to Lord in that moment for his strength to help her forgive him.

Corrie Ten Boom had a realization that day. That forgiveness, is an act of the will, not necessarily a desire or an emotion. She said when she reached out her hand and touched his, she felt this amazing wave of current pass from her shoulders, through her arm and from her hand to his. She felt this overwhelming love for this man, come over her. She said she felt Gods love more on that particular day than any other day before. Here is why I believe that to be so.

I know that God is the embodiment of love. That is why people say that to truly and purely love someone, is to see the face of God. Because he is love. And kindness, gentleness and even forgiveness, though they may sometimes be done out of obedience and not desire, is still an act of love.

John the disciple said that the more you learn to love, the more you get to know Gods heart, because all good things in life are wrapped around this one concept, love. It has a name, and that name is Jesus.

To quote her words specifically- “ And so I discovered that it is not on our own forgiveness any more than our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”

I’m no Corrie Ten Boom, but I can appreciate how wonderfully her suffering was converted to something beautiful by God. She used all that she had endured to bring hope to other people that “There is no pit too deep.”

I know how easy it would be to fly away to something new and amazing, never once turning back to show compassion to the bird that’s moving in a pace that never benefited you. I think even more than hatred, sheer indifference is such a glorious temptation. But then what? I am left empty, compassionless, indifferent to human vulnerability.

I’m not saying we should run back to things that hurt us, we must separate ourselves from the things in life that hinder us. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t still love that bird. I can still pray for a new route for my love to flow through. I can still dream of good things for that little bird. And all it will amount to.

Don’t be afraid of that feeling, and that will to do the right thing, because it will do miracles for your own soul.

Love,

Vera.