Day 15 - A feast of forgiveness

READING: Matthew 18:21-35

Yesterday I spoke about the importance of saying sorry - those powerfully liberating words that can help to heal the wounds that we have inflicted and which bring the hope of forgiveness and reconciliation to light.

Today I’d like to continue with that broad theme, by sharing an amazing story that speaks about the relentless quest for forgiveness to be found. It’s a story of hope that speaks of the promise that in the most unlikely ways, grace is powerfully at work within our lives seeking to bring about healing and wholeness against all the odds. This account is based on a version written by Peter Storey which he entitled ’A feast of forgiveness.’ It is used with his permission.

Richard Gruscott from Illinois was a young 101st Airborne soldier in Vietnam. On one of his first patrols he came face to face with an NVA soldier carrying an AK47. For a terrifying couple of seconds they stared at each other – each of them frozen with shock. Then Richard pulled the trigger and killed the man.

Some of his colleagues searched the body and Richard picked up a tiny photo that fell from this man’s pocket – not much bigger than a postage stamp. It showed a fine looking young man in NVA uniform, with a beautiful little girl – who must have been about eight years old. Both had a haunted, sad look in their eyes – as if this photo was taken when they knew they must be parted from each other soon. He checked the photo against the face of the man he had shot – sure enough. It was the same person. For some reason he put the photo into his wallet.

He killed again and was shot at many times – but he survived, finally being shipped out with a shell fragment in his back sustained while trying to rescue a comrade.

He got a job at the local Veterans’ Association and for 25 years was haunted by the picture he still carried in his wallet. He couldn’t forget the face of the little girl he had orphaned. He now had two daughters of his own, and was desperately guilty about her. It obsessed him and it threatened his marriage.

He finally thought that maybe if he could make an offering of the photo, he might be set free. He wrote an anonymous letter to the girl, telling her he had killed her father and asking her forgiveness. This and the photo, he laid at the foot of the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington DC. As he did so he felt a great sense of relief wash over him and went home to Illinois to resume his life.

Like all other mementos at the Memorial Wall, the photo and note were picked up and stored. There they lay for some time, until an author decided to write a book about the gifts left at the wall. In going through the store room he came upon the photo and letter, which were quite unique, being the only gifts in 25 years to feature an enemy soldier. He featured the picture and message prominently in his book, without mentioning the name of the man who had written it.

A friend of Richard bought the book, and immediately recognized the picture and brought it to show him. The veteran who was curator of the store returned the original photo to Richard. For Richard, this brought everything back again and it was a sign to him that there was more to do. So he set about writing to North Vietnam’s Ambassador in Washington DC and asking how he might try and identify the little girl – now 30 years older. The North Vietnamese were not very optimistic, but a newspaper story did appear in Hanoi, showing the picture, and telling of the note left at the Memorial.

That is where it all might have ended, if it were not for someone who used the newspaper to wrap a parcel to send to his parents in his home village. One of the parents, on opening the parcel, immediately recognized the picture – this was a soldier he had known. The dead man’s family was in a nearby village. He alerted them.

Richard was finally told and soon after, a letter came to him from the girl – now a woman of 40 – expressing some measure of understanding and appreciation. Richard knew without any doubt that the only way he was going to find peace, would be to return the picture to her.

So he traveled to Vietnam – a place he swore he would never ever return to – and was taken to her village, where an incredible meeting took place, in which both wept, and embraced. He made a little speech in Vietnamese that he had prepared, handed the picture over to her and asked for her forgiveness. When she saw it – the only picture of her with her father in existence – she really broke down, and clung on to him, almost as if he were her lost father.

Together they placed the picture on the little family altar in the house, and all the village gathered for a meal – it was a feast of forgiveness.

PRAYER:

Today you are encouraged to write a short prayer around some area in your life where the feast of forgiveness is still waiting to be celebrated.