Good morning and happy Thursday. Forgiveness. How many times a day do you think you make a judgment about some one by how they look or act when you see them? How many times do you do that with people you know or have known for many years?  You hold on to an old memory of that wrong they did way back? How many of us look at ourselves in that same light? So why is the light cast differently for us than them? Borrowing from Casting Crowns, " open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers". The same way we want to forget what we've done in our past is the same way we need to forget others of their past. When this action takes place, we begin to be more like Jesus. When the people of His days here were about to stone a woman to death, Jesus bent down and wrote in the sand. Many dropped the stones they held and left. He then asked for those without sin to cast the first stone. The rest left with that. Jesus had compassion for us that we will never get, but it's not too hard to begin to peruse that way of thinking and behaving. How different would life be if we stopped looking at the outside and got to know the inside? Just think, just as we look at others in that other light, others are looking at us in it. We're just as messy as everyone else and some of us are messier than others maybe. Fact is we are all messy. And when we're pointing at others, three fingers are pointing back at us. I think there's a reason for that. I don't know what Jesus wrote in the sand that day, but it came from love for a sinner about to be killed. He knew her heart and forgave her of the wrong she had done. It was done and over and she was never seen that way again by Him. That's the perfect example of how we should be. Forgiveness. The toughest thing to do and receive but still the greatest thing we can do for each other. In love always. <><