just keeping score

Thursday September 18^th, Matthew 18: 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"  22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. How would a marriage work if there was a notebook keep somewhere where each party could make a note each time forgiveness is granted?  Let me see, even if you took the variant of 7x70=490, or the literal used above of only 77 times, what would you end up with?  All you would have is a limited time, or a limited number of forgiveness’s and then, Wham!!!!!!  The big “D.”  I have never suggested that in pre-marital counseling.  On the contrary, my wife and I have a plaque that says that a loving marriage is a union of two good forgivers.  Reality is that for most of us, it would not take long to fill the page and be on our way out the door.  If that were the way God did things, we all would be on our way out the door and down the path to below a long time ago.  Perhaps the answer to the question of, how long shall I forgive my brother or sister or friend or enemy or…… is, until there is no longer anything to forgive and this life is over.  Anything else is just keeping score.