| Sunny Side Up! April 18, 2001 Copyright 2001, Kathleen Gibson Scarlet Sins and White Wool I began my last column with an illustration about a young family in distress, and a child who sadly stated, �Mommy can�t laugh anymore.� I heard from that mother this week. She gave me permission to share the rest of her story. It was a horrid situation. She had brought it on herself, but admitting that didn�t make the consequences any easier to bear. An adulterous affair with her best friend�s husband had destroyed a long-time friendship, ruined two marriages, split one church, robbed her children of her laughter, and herself of all self-esteem. The guilt was more than she could bear. Realizing all she�d given up for one year of illicit pleasure brought her to the point of complete mental collapse. Her husband stayed with her, but it was a marriage in name only. For the sake of the children, they agreed to work on restoring their relationship. But it was hard work, complicated by her precarious mental state, and a constant death wish. Then someone gave her a lamb. A small, white, cuddly, homemade lamb. Around its neck was a message. She read the tiny print. �Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool.� Isaiah 1:18 It was a Bible verse. This woman knew Bible verses - by heart. She was raised in the church, and very recently had been music director in one. Until her affair with the head deacon, that is. Oh, she knew all the right verses, even this one. But like Hester Prynne in Hawthorne�s classic novel, until the scarlet letter A was emblazoned on her own chest, she�d never thought of herself as a sinner in need of forgiveness. She shrunk from the accusing eyes around her - the unkindly eyes of fellow worshippers who had been her friends last week, before her repentant, public confession. If they couldn�t forgive, there was no hope, she thought. But she couldn�t stop reading the message the little lamb carried around its neck. And slowly, the true meaning of Easter made its gentle way into her heart and mind � Jesus, the perfect sacrificial lamb, died for me. He forgives, even this, even when others don�t. Forgiveness � the one thing that sets Christianity apart from every other world religion. It was what she needed to be whole again. It�s over a decade and hundreds of hours of counseling later, but she�s found her way home, truly home, back to the arms of a God who receives prodigals with open arms, back to her husband�s forgiving love, and yes, even back to a church � a different church, where there are people who understand that God has rebellious kids too, and sometimes they�re sitting in the front pews. She was making Easter eggs with her son earlier this week, she told me. And they were both laughing. You can respond to this column at [email protected] or by writing this paper directly. |