She went out for cigarettes. That's my favorite detail of the story told by Ashley Smith. It was not a noble calling; it wasn't even a noble errand. But the craving for nicotine at 2 o'clock in the morning apparently led Smith into the loaded gun of one Brian Nichols, a man who was wanted for raping one woman and murdering another woman and three men. According to Smith, Nichols forced her into her apartment, tied her up, put her in the bathtub and told her, "I'm not going to hurt you if you just do what I say."This story shocked me. It was a real-life story, and yet, it was totally so... different. And I think that is how Jesus' listeners must too have felt when they heard of the rich father racing to embrace that runaway ragamuffin runt of a son.
What would you do under those circumstances? Scream? Panic? Beg? But at that point, something else intervened. Smith actually communicated with her captor. She says she saw him not as a monster but as a human being. She talked with him. She told her story--how her husband had been stabbed in a dispute and had died in her arms, how she then had developed a drug habit, had been caught for speeding and drunken driving, had been arrested for assault (the charges were dropped), had ceded custody of her young daughter to her aunt. She showed him her wounds as a human being. And she saw in that man his own wounded soul. [read more...]
So shocking. And I am starting to think very hard right now... Jesus' words are TOTALLY right. "Love your enemies... do good to those who hate you..."
I'm so shocked. Jesus is truly the wisest man ever, the one greater than Solomon.
Would I do such a thing? Kneel down to pray for the guy holding a rifle to my head? Help serve the woman who has just insulted me? And so on... would I?
No comments:
Post a Comment