I arrived at the McDonald’s and went through the drive-thru.  I was given the drinks in a tray and a bag filled with food.  I started driving home and then I wondered if I had received everything that I ordered.  Then I realized, “They didn’t give me a Happy Meal!”  So, I turned around, went back to McDonald’s, and pulled up at the drive-thru window.  The employee handed me the missing Happy Meal, and I started my journey home again.

Then I wondered, “Did they give me the chicken nuggets?”  I felt in the bag and didn’t feel a box; instead, I felt a bag.  I opened the bag with one hand and felt a sandwich.  It was a spicy chicken sandwich that I had not ordered.  No chicken nuggets!  I chose not to go back again to that McDonald’s; I stopped at another McDonald’s on the way home to get the chicken nuggets.

Finally, I made it home where I found some hungry grandchildren.  We gave them the food that they had wanted.  I was relieved… for a little bit.

Landyn came to me.  “Bug (my grandpa name), we have a problem!  There are pickles and ketchup on my hamburger!”  “Oh,” I replied. “You must like your hamburgers plain.  I am so sorry, Landyn.  That was my fault.  I didn’t tell them to make the hamburger plain.”  Patrice scraped the pickles and ketchup off the hamburger, but that wasn’t palatable to Landyn.

Landyn started rehearsing the blunder I had made to Tricee (Patrice’s grandma name) as we sat down to eat.  But then she looked at me and said, “That’s okay, Bug.  I love you and I forgive you.”  Then she turned to her Tricee and said, “And Tricee, if you did what Bug did, I would love and forgive you, too.”

Tears came to my eyes – not only because of her forgiveness, but because of the powerful lesson this three-year-old was teaching me.

“I love you and I forgive you.”

Where did she learn to be forgiving?  I think it’s the influence of her godly parents and others who are teaching her about God and how He loves us and forgives us.

God is a loving and forgiving God.  That is wonderful news because we ALL need His love and forgiveness, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  God loves us so much that He gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we can be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16).