Thought of the Day 04.12.10

Imagine you have really good parents who treat you well and train you properly. But then you do something terrible which goes against everything they’ve taught you and brings great shame to your entire family. Your natural impulse would be to keep it a secret if possible and you’d likely live in terror at their reaction if they found out.

But then they do discover what you’ve done. You stand before them ashamed, afraid, and angry at yourself for having been so foolish as you await your punishment. But then instead of rejecting you or disowning you, they tell you they’ll take care of it and that they forgive you. Expecting disaster, you instead receive acceptance.

Now, in a certain sense, you loved them before all of this happened, right? But isn’t it obvious that you now have an entirely new level of appreciation for their goodness precisely because it was given in response to your evil rather than in response to your good? And telling this story to others would make them look like the greatest parents in the world, even more glorious than you could have ever known before, right?