Forgiveness, I came to see, is about cleaning up the memory by renouncing and flushing vengeful feelings about other people. Forgiveness is about surrendering the right for vengeance and retribution. It is about acknowledging that we are all failures in one way or another and that we stand on level ground with any offender before the cross, where God, in Christ, forgave us. None of us has a claim to superiority over any other in God’s presence. Forgiveness is, in part, facing that hard reality.
