“If you hug to yourself any resentment against anybody else, you destroy the bridge by which God would come to you.” Peter Marshall

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6.14,15

She was trapped. She had no time for excuse. No time to dress. They grabbed her while she was in the act. One minute his hands were all over her and the next she was in the hands of a mob. They half drug – half threw her down the street. “They made her stand before the group.” (John 8.3b) There she stood with nothing to say and no where to run. There was no man by her side except the ones who wished to take her life.

Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground. What he wrote sent chills up the spines of the men around him. “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he stooped down and wrote more. What did he write?

I have harbored resentment and wanted to see someone get what was “coming to them”. I’ve caught people “in the act”. But a thought recurs to me that stops me cold. Perhaps Jesus might etch a list of my sins into the ground before my very eyes. One day I too will stand before the Rabbi with no excuse and no where to run. “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone…” I will continue to drop the rock in my hand. I suggest you do the same.