“The root of bitterness ran deep, anger had set in, and I hated everyone. I remained like this for years, driving many people away.”
Every human being on the face of the Earth knows these feelings–or knows someone who has experienced them firsthand. It would be foolish to downplay or deny that. In fact, every day, there’s likely someone somewhere in the world who knows what these words feel like when spoken. There’s one significant difference, however.
These words weren’t just spoken by someone going through a rough patch in their lives. They were spoken by a mother whose son was murdered in cold blood in February 1993.According to a recent article published by Upworthy.com, the mother, Mary Johnson, found out about her son’s death while at work. While his name isn’t mentioned in the article, Jonson made sure those within the social justice system knew who he was.
She stopped at nothing to seek rightful revenge on his killer, a 16-year-old boy named Oshea Israel. She pleaded with judges in court–sharing memories of her son and telling everyone who would listen that Oshea needed to be brought to justice:
“In court, I viewed Oshea as an animal,” she told The Forgiveness Project.
Today, 12 years after being convicted of murder, Oshea is on the path to rebuilding his life–and Johnson has been helping him every step of the way. In the video above, both individuals reveal when and why they had a change of heart. For Ohea, that moment of release occurred in the courtroom:
“When it was to go [to court], [Mary] broke down and started shedding tears, and the initial thing to do was just to try and hold [her] up as best as I could–and hug her like I would to my own mother.”
To that, Mary added:
“After [he] left the room, I began to say it: ‘I just hugged the man who murdered my son.’ [And] I instantly knew that all the anger and animosity–all the stuff I had in my heart for 12 years–was over. [I knew] that I had totally forgiven [him.]”
In this fast-paced, often troubled world, there’s a time for pain, and a time for redemption–but there’s also a time for forgiveness. Mankind just needs to figure out when that moment is.
For the sake of humanity, I think we all do. We all deserve having that peace of mind, if nothing else.
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Photo Credit: www.upworthy.com
When I was reading this it made me think of the love and forgiveness of Jesus. To be a victim of something so horrible, but yet in a moment of vulnerability, allowing yourself to be hugged by the man who took everything away, and giving away all that anger only to find forgiveness is amazing. Kudos to both of these individuals for venturing down a path of forgiveness and building a relationship.
I don’t know that I possess the type of love that it would take to do as this woman did.