I recently reconnected with some old college friends. What a gift! I was reminded of why I loved them so much then and dearly wish I could see more of them now. Reminiscing is priceless, and I was surprised at how many memories we were able to retrieve from the "corners of our minds."

Robin, my old roommate, was almost as tall as me but weighed about half as much. My mom knew Robin made me feel like a moose and gave me the old, "you're just bigger boned than she is." I never bought into the big-boned, small-boned rationale. Seriously? The reason my thighs are twice the circumference of hers is because my thigh bone is that much bigger than hers? Hmmm.....anytime I've seen horrifying pictures of piled up skeletons or starving people that were practically skeletons, I've always thought they looked relatively the same size. So there goes that little theory.

Robin always had snacks in our room. Since I was forever trying to lose a few, I never bought snacks, but it didn't keep me from sneakily munching on hers. One day I came into our room and found Robin peering into what she thought was a toy surprise from her cereal box, possibly a little magnifying glass. She had accused me earlier of eating some of her "Donkey Kong" cereal, which I had flatly denied. When I walked in and saw her with her "toy" I was thrilled that she had somehow managed to find the missing glass piece from my watch. Busted. Not only had I been sneaking some of her cereal but I had pawed through it so much that the face of my watch had come off in the box. How gross, how mortifying. Surprisingly, I remember that Robin seemed more hurt than mad, or maybe it was just pure pity. As I've gotten older I've realized just how hurtful lying is. No wonder it's one of the ten commandments and on God's list of seven most detestable sins. Honesty is one of the most important building blocks of any great relationship.

Fortunately, God provided us with the greatest gift ever given: forgiveness. Robin forgave me (though she probably never trusted me around her food again).

Of course, no gift can surpass the sacrifice of God's only Son to redeem us, but I sometimes forget what a precious gift it is to be able to forgive each other. There are things that I've done, and things that have been done to me that I thought were unforgivable,  and yet, with God's help there has been forgiveness and healing. I am always inspired with stories of people that have (by God's grace) forgiven the seemingly unforgivable...like Corrie Ten Boom's forgiveness of that monstrous Nazi guard from the concentration camp. I love verses that talk about removing our sins "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103), and that remind us to "forget what is behind and strive toward what is ahead." (Phil. 3)

I love how C.S. Lewis put it, "to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."