Out of the horror of...
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Out of the horror of the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s comes the touching story of Juanito. When Juanito was about nine years old, he was found blood-soaked under a pile of murdered relatives. Himself unharmed, he was taken to an orphanage where he spent the next couple years struggling between moments of playfulness and moments when he would withdraw into total silence. One day, when Juanito was eleven, he said his confession to a visiting priest. After he was finished, he put his small hand on the priest's shoulder and said earnestly, "Father, pray for me, so that I can forgive the soldiers who killed my mother and brothers. I do not want to live with hatred in my heart." The youthful eye of Juanito's heart was certainly enlightened. He was experiencing "the immeasurable greatness" of God's power in those who believe. It is a power great in love and forgiveness, AND the hope that ultimately all things rest at the foot of Jesus, even the tragedies of life. (Source: El Salvador: A Spring Whose Waters Never Run Dry, edited by Scott Wright, et al., p. 56.) -- Molldrem
