One of the aspects of God and Christianity that some non believers have a really hard time reconciling is forgiveness, especially that of particularly heinous crimes. And on one level, I understand the difficulty.

Today, we read of Paul’s confession to the Lord that he had been responsible for the arrest of believers, and even held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death. But in spite of those terrible crimes, Jesus forgave Paul and even made him one of the linchpins of the church.

We cannot explain completely the depth of God’s love for us, or His enormous capacity for forgiveness, but we do have ample evidence of its reality. If not in Paul, then in each one of us. None of us is deserving of the gift of grace that God offers, but offer it He does. If we will accept it, He takes the pieces of our broken lives and creates something so much more that we could have ever thought possible. I’m sure it never entered Paul’s mind that he would play the role that he has in human and church history. I wonder what God will do with your life.