Shredder and Forgiveness- Dougie Spence

When I was just a little tot I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I watched the Saturday morning cartoons and had TMNT toys. I had some that I would just set up in my room to look cool, and others that I would allow myself to play with. It was clear that I was a fan.

Every summer my sister and I would take turns going up to my grandparent’s house in Crestline. We would each spend a week completely spoiled by our grandparents. One year it was decided that my sister and I would spend the entire week up in the mountains together. I’m not thinking I was completely on board with sharing my grandparents for a week, but at seven the choice really wasn’t up to me.

Of course as a small child it was extremely important to bring the correct toys with me. Nothing too big and distracting, but toys that I knew could keep me entertained while the elders watched the news. This time around I had decided to pick two of my favorite toys, TMNT’s Shredder and Rafael. Sadly I did not know the future, and these toys were chosen not knowing the impending doom that lie ahead.

On one of the mornings that week my sister and I were playing with our toys out on the second story deck. For the purpose of this story it is important for you to know that we were playing on complete opposite sides of the deck, in no way did the story between my toys and the story between her girly toys have anything to do with each other. As it turned out me being a little boy something came to my mind and I had to run inside the house. When I came back out I walked over to my toys but something was amiss. Shredder in all his awesomeness was missing. My sister was on her side of the deck acting as if everything was ok, but in my head I knew she had Shredder, but even my deepest fears did not compare to reality.

When I finally got her to confess, it turned out Shredder took a suicidal leap off the deck and into the unknown! My Grammy and I ran down stairs and outside to find little Shredder, but sadly he was gone. He was in the great abyss of ivy and would never be found again. Now this may seem trivial if you are in fact old enough to have read this blog, but for a seven year old boy this was the end of the world.

The reality is that in the grand scheme of things most sins committed against us are quite trivial. If we stack them up, they do not compare at all to the sins that God has forgiven us for. He forgives every time we sin, even the times when no one else knows we did anything wrong. He forgives us because he loves us, just as we should love those around us. It is important to for us to remember 1 John 4:20, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Let’s make sure we show the love of God to all those we come in contact with. And with love, let’s make sure we forgive just as Christ has forgiven us.