Amish Grace

I just finished watching a movie entitled' Amish Grace ' . It told the story of the murders of several young amish girls in their small school in a town called Nickel Mines. It is a true story and happened a few years ago ( I don't remember exactly how many).

A man went into the school house and began shooting the children, Several young girls died and 5 others were wounded. The man was then killed He left a note saying that he was doing this to ' get back at God for his own little girl dying . ' He blamed God and took his grief and anger out on these little children.

The movie told of the incredible forgiveness that the Amish showed towards the man who had done this , even though he was dead. It also told of their love and kindness toward the wife and children of the man who had so senselessly killed their children.

It told of the battles some of the mothers went through on there way to this forgiveness.

One of the mother's had a very difficult time of it and was ready to leave the community because she said that

'there were some things that could not be forgiven '. She as determined that she could not forgive , and wasn't , until one of the little girls who was wounded regained consciouness and asked to speak to this mother. The little girl told the mother that as her daughter lay dying in that little school house floor that she forgave the man who shot her.

This touched the mother so deeply that she was able to release her own hate and forgive him as well.

One other mother , who lost 2 little girls ( 7 and 8) ,said that every morning when she woke up she expected to hear the girls singing together like they always did while they were working. She said that the silence was a constant reminder that her children were gone and that she had to turn it over to God . And then an hour or two later she had to turn it over again. But the only way she could deal with the loss was to keep turning it over to God.

Very few people who attended the church where the wife and children of the killer attended went to the funeral

of the father who did the killing , but all of the Amish community that were physically able went to comfort

the family of the one who had killed their children.

It caused me to wonder how I would have reacted in the same situation. Could I have forgiven so completeely that I would have went out of my way to try to comfort the family of the man who killed my children?

By the grace of God alone. And don't think that any of us could do anything like that WITHOUT God 's grace working in us.

This movie depicted the grace of God in it's most powerful form ( except in our salvation). I was very surprised to see the movie on TV because it doesn't match up with the world's way of thinking ; but then God's ways rarely do.

The father of the girl who's mother thought she would nevr be able to forgive told his wife, " if we cannot forgive in the times of testing , how true can our faith be ?"

I think that this is something we would all ( especially me ) do well to meditate on because we never know when we may be required to show such forgiveness and faith in our own dire circumstances.

If any of you have the opportunity to see this movie I really encourage you to do so.

God bless you all as you grow in the grace an knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.