I Didn't Even Bring a Tootsie Pop

I had this dream last year where I was dating a guy from school. Long story short, he did something that was so horrible and backstabbing that I got sick over it, and what made it worse is that he had no remorse. He just...let me go. I got so sick I had to drop out of school and became house-bound. Months went by, and my friends all consoled me, but I never heard anything from this guy. One day I was sleeping on the couch, and I rolled over to find him standing there in the doorway. He looked sick himself. I couldn't really make myself look at him, and he wouldn't look me in the eye. He walked over to the couch, got down on his knees, and without saying a word, he held out a boquet of Tootsie Pops. I remember so clearly getting the absolute biggest grin and just feeling such a freedom of forgiveness. I woke up, and I had the best feeling, actually wishing (to a degree) that something like that could happen to me so I could experience that overwhelming feeling of forgiveness again.

I've been thinking about the word "forgive" for a couple of years now. I know what it means to forgive, but I don't know what "forgive" actually means. It can't just be overlooking an offense. It doesn't mean forgetting about some painful thing. I couldn't find anything that really told me what it meant to forgive. If I can't understand the word, then how am I supposed to know just what God does with my offenses and what I'm supposed to do with others'?

I finally learned that it's all in the prefix "for." "For" means "away, apart, off," so "forbear" means to "bear off," "forbid" means to "bid away," and "forget" means to "get apart." The prefix carries with it a very active sense, a personal action of pushing or lifting or raising. "Forgive," then, would mean to, "give off, give away, give apart." Forgiveness is an active and purposeful separation of offense from offended.

God has actively pushed my infidelity away from our relationship. My offenses are not there anymore. They're not an issue. I cheated on Him, spit in His face, and made no effort toward restituation for so long, and yet when I came crawling back, He "gave away" what I had done. I brought nothing, not even a Tootsie Pop, but I know He just got the hugest grin.

Can I do any less?