 An Amazing True Story
When Christy* was just 4 years old, she experienced her father’s uncontrolled temper in the form of physical abuse. By the time she was a young teenager, her father was imprisoned for life. She dropped out of school in seventh grade in order to go to work to help support her family. When Christy was 15 years old, however, her young work life was cut short when her mother was killed by a drunk driver. Christy became a ward of the state, and eventually ran away from foster care. The next year, her younger brother was murdered. Christy couldn’t reconcile in her heart how her life had become such a nightmare.
By the time she was 23, Christy was married with two young children. She was hoping that the fragmented pieces of her broken world would finally make some sense, but her past continued to haunt her. How could her father have been so cruel to her and her five siblings? Why didn’t he care enough about his children to ensure their well being? Christy realized she was headed for divorce and more brokenness unless she could reconcile her past in answer to these important questions.
By this time, Christy's father had been in prison for over ten years. Christy decided it was time to try to make peace with her past by visiting her father in prison and confronting him. Never contemplating forgiveness, she simply hoped to resolve the anger and horror she continued to feel from her childhood. She would tell her father how badly he had hurt his children and that the scars he had left would last a lifetime. She would let him know that he was responsible for the hell their lives had become. Hopefully, this would enable her to find peace by severing ties with her horrendous past and moving into a new future.
Christy wasn’t ready for the interaction that took place with her father the day she entered the visiting room of the state prison where he was incarcerated. She had prepared for a battle with her abuser, but instead found a man who had already begun to “surrender.” It was evident that something had happened to her father during his incarceration; he had become gentle, remorseful, and truly repentant. He apologized for his sins and past acts of abuse. The peace that she had longed for began to appear, but not in a way she had ever imagined. Through the ministry of an Orthodox priest, Christy's father had become a Christian during his incarceration. God had enabled Christy's father to begin to repent of his many past sins, and now, God was reaching out to heal Christy as well through the very man who had abused and broken her. God broke through the hardness and was in the process of restoring a heart of flesh!
That night, Christy knelt at her bedside feeling confused and hopeful. Thanking Jesus Christ with tears of joy and pain, she experienced God's love, enormous and infinite, and yet so close that she felt it surrounding her like a warm cloak. As she rested in the arms of her Heavenly Father, Christy opened her heart to Him in a way she had never been able to do before. Concerning her earthly father, Christy remained guarded. If this was a true reconciliation, it had to pass the test of time.
Thirteen more years have now passed. Christy lives with her three children. She is a seventh grade science teacher and a devout Christian. She began to understand forgiveness the day she visited her father in prison and saw how God had touched his life. Now, forgiveness and reconciliation continues to deepen in Christy as she takes steps each day to receive more of the healing embrace of our Lord and experience a deeper reconciliation with her past, her father, her siblings, and most importantly – her God! Now, as Christy experiences God's total forgiveness of her own sins and is given the freedom to love even the person who caused her the most pain, the reality of God’s transforming grace becomes more and more evident to her. Through the love of God at work behind prison walls, Christy and her father have been given the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation that last a lifetime!
*Name changed to protect identity.
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