Given many horrendous scenarios, which ones deserve forgiveness and which ones are so appalling that that forgiveness could never even be considered? It's a complicated question filled with what ifs. Most people would say that it depends on the situation, the background story. That's understandable. A man who stole food looks bad in context, but maybe he has a starving family back at home. Others would say that it depends on if they did it willingly, or in their right minds. If an insane person commits murder, it is looked upon more lightly than if a sane man did it. Or maybe a little boy was forced into a ghastly deed. As humans, our instincts are to judge or to blame, to decide who is right and who is wrong, who should be forgiven and who shouldn't.
God says to forgive seventy times seven. God says their are no limits or conditions on forgiveness.
So everyone should be forgiven. No one should hold a grudge. But no one should forget. Mistakes make us who we are, they define us. And there is no possible way to completely forget the past. And just because someone is forgiven doesn't mean that they have escaped punishment. It doesn't mean they are back on the straight and narrow. There is a difference between forgiving and forgetting.
