“Do you know, only a few weeks ago I realized suddenly that I at last had forgiven the cruel schoolmaster who so darkened my childhood. I’d been trying to do it for years: and like you, each time I thought I’d done it, I found, after a week or so it all had to be attempted over again. But this time I feel sure it is the real thing. And (like learning to swim or to ride a bicycle) the moment it does happen it seems so easy and you wonder why on earth you didn’t do it years ago.
So the parable of the unjust judge comes true, and what has been vainly asked for years can suddenly be granted. I also get a quite new feeling about ‘If you forgive you will be forgiven.’ I don’t believe it is, as it sounds, a bargain. The forgiving and the being forgiven are really the very same thing. But one is safe as long as one keeps on trying”, wrote C.S. Lewis.
I would go one step further than Mr. Lewis. It is clear to this scribe that we cannot be forgiven until we forgive. The Lord’s prayer says”forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us”. Very clear.
If we are to be the recipients of forgiveness, we must create the channel in our hearts to receive the forgiveness we seek. Forgiving others creates that channel. Admitting our own sins, and asking for forgiveness clears the debris from that channel, making clear the way for forgiveness to enter our lives.
Then, as forgiven spirits, we can access the peace, hope and joy of the garden God created for us here.
Seeking and offering forgiveness,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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