The tale of two families in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Like most people this past week I have been absorbed  reading every bit of information about the Boston Marathon bomber's.  I wanted to try to understand what possessed two seemingly good nature young men to cause this kind of bloody mayhem on a innocent event we come to know as the Boston Marathon.

I remember the initial words of the Uncle of these young men going before the camera's and exclaiming before the world that 'they are loser's" and then going on and saying he broke his family away from this half of the family because he wanted nothing to do with them. This Uncle looked upstanding and without knowing too much about him you might have concluded that he had a real good career.

Then I read about his brother being described as a street mechanic who could not find a proper job as one and resorted to repairing cars on the street until that is when neighbors started complaining.  Both of his boys were in college at one time and both dropped out due to lack of finances to continue.  

Then the brother who could not attain a job came down with a life threatening illness and when he could no longer be treated he moved back to his native country 'to die'.  His son's no longer had their dad to cheer them on and encourage them in whatever dreams they had.  The youngest wanted to be an RN and was a student on a partial scholarship at Dartmouth until that is when he dropped out. One of the son's wrote how he had no friends in the United States.  Together the two brother's drifted.  

The next day this Uncle was interviewed again and this time he described the two boys as good kids who got caught up in something bigger than them. He became convinced that the oldest used the youngest to carry out pressure cooker plan.

Part of me began thinking what if the Uncle had from the beginning been involved in these boys lives? What if he had made an effort to sit down with them over coffee and had given them advice and what if he had encouraged them to stay in school even if they had to take out student loans?  What if this Uncle had encouraged his brother and connected him to programs that would have helped him to get a steady career just so he could pay the bills, support his family, and be a healthy role model for his children?

As I thought about the three deaths and countless significant injuries caused by these young men I was reminded of what Christ did on the cross and how important forgiveness is in our lives.  Everyone of us has a grievance story where some wrong has been done to us and we fixate on that wrong trying to get revenge on the person or persons causing those wrongs. The problem, as I see it, is that by hanging onto our grievance story we are being held captive by our past and when that happens we are unable to make plans for the future. 

Everyone has a grievance story. The question is do you want to live your life in your past with all of the hurts and wrongs, or do you want to turn your grievance story into a forgiveness story where you can reconcile those wrongs so you can make future plans.  As Christians we have been given a role model in Christ who demonstrated time after time in his public ministry how important forgiveness is in our lives.Tragedies do not have to define us. Tragedy can be an opportunity to see God use you.  Like a sweet smelling fragrance he will bring people to you who need to hear your message of forgiveness for their own lives.

 Every day there are countless grievance stories being turn into forgiveness stories. When forgiveness happens beautiful things result from enjoying life to celebrating the successes of our loved ones.

Forgiveness is truly a beautiful thing!