Forgiveness

When did you last read the Lord's prayer in your Bible? I was reading the version in Matthew today and was struck by what appears to be an emphasis on forgiveness. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, but it can be a scary thing as well. To start with if we let things go long enough we get used to being mad at a certain person and to forgive would mean changing that pattern. What might that look like? How would we deal with that person now? The other scary part is that to get to forgiveness there often needs to be a confrontation. So instead of a calm before the storm we need to face a storm before the calm. In forgiveness there needs to be a confrontation of the wrong that has happened, and very few of us like confrontation. Yet I think we all know the beauty of the other side of forgiveness, that side where we are forgiven. It's a beautiful and wonderful gift. If God can forgive us then it seems that we can forgive others, we can share that gift. Wouldn't that make this world a more beautiful place?