Faithfully yours - A word written in red

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Published on Sunday, April 3, 2016

By Neil Strohschein 

The Neepawa Banner

Many years ago, so the story goes, a country doctor died. He had moved to an out-of-the-way community in rural America and had spent his life caring for the people there. He had delivered their babies, bandaged their wounds, set their broken bones and sat with them when they took their last breaths. And when he died, the whole community mourned his passing.

What few people in the community realized was just how much this man had really cared for them and how much of himself he had invested in their health and well-being.

That was revealed in a most unique way when his widow learned that there was barely enough money to pay for his funeral. She had nothing to live on and she wanted to know why. So she went to her late husband’s office, opened the safe and took out her husband’s ledgers. The first book contained the daily logs; a record of every office visit, every hospital call, every injection given and procedure performed, who had received the service and how much had been charged.

The second ledger had a page for each family, with a detailed record of the services the family had received, how much they owed and how much they had paid. Not one of the families had ever paid their account in full. So the doctor’s widow went to court, gave the books to the judge and demanded that he order those who owed her late husband money to pay up.

The judge looked at the books and began to call out names. One by one, those this doctor had treated stood before the judge and told the same story: “He never turned us away. We came to him, told him we couldn’t pay our bill and he just smiled and told us not to worry about it.”

After hearing their stories, the judge called the doctor’s widow to his desk. He opened a page of the ledger and said: “Ma’am, at the bottom of this page, there is a word written in red. Is it in your late husband’s handwriting?” She said it was. “Then please tell the court what word is written in red.” In a quiet voice, with her eyes filled with tears, she read the word: “Forgiven.”

“My dear friend,” the judge said, “I understand how you feel. I know that years ahead will not be easy for you as you will be dependant on the generosity of others for your livelihood. But I must tell you this. Your husband forgave the debts. There is not a court in this country that will overturn what he has done. All claims you have filed are dismissed. Everyone is free to go.”

One word written in red was all it took to erase a lifetime of debt owed to a loving and caring doctor. One word, written by his own hand, released these families from all obligation to pay.

There is another ledger. This one isn’t on earth. It’s in heaven next to the throne of God. There is a page in this ledger for every person who has ever lived on earth. Some pages are filled with lines of type, each one recording a sin someone has committed.

But some pages are blank, except for one word—a word written in red—the word “Forgiven.”

That word, written in red, reminds us of “the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin;” (1 John 1:7) and “that all who believe in him can be justified (forgiven, declared guiltless) of all sin.” (Acts 13:39)