Forgiveness

Once upon a time there was a preacher named Henry who was a truly kind hearted and loving person. Henry loved the Lord, and he worked very hard to serve him and to live a righteous life. The Lord blessed Henry, and the modest little church where he preached the Word grew and prospered with him. Henry was so admired that people would come from all over to hear him preach the Word of God.
Then Henry met Gloria, and he fell madly in love. He and Gloria soon became engaged, and Henry could not help but think how happy he was.
Soon after Henry and Gloria got married she became pregnant and had a son. People would see his son and say that he looked nothing like Henry. Gloria insisted that the curly hair came from her mother's side of the family. A short time after that Gloria became pregnant again this time with a daughter. This time a little red haired girl who Gloria swore up and down took after her grandfather on her father's side. Finally Gloria had another son who had hair black as coal and slanted eyes that distinctly marked the father as an Asian. In spite of the fact that Gloria assured him that her great-great uncle Foo was Chinese Henry decided he wanted blood tests. When he got back from the doctor's office Gloria was already packed and gone.
Gloria headed for the apartment of her latest lover, a young Japanese businessman named Li. When she told Li that she had no place to stay he was really quick to chase her off before his girlfriend got a chance to see her. Next Gloria called on a certain curly haired deacon from the church to ask for help. The man's wife greeted her at the door, but was unwilling to let her speak with him. Finally, she looked up the last person she really wanted to see. A certain red headed guitar player named Toby. She had partied with him after a concert once and she didn't really know him to well. To her surprise he seemed more than happy to let her come over "hang out" for a while.
She spent a couple of months at Toby's place on and off. Toby was a little rough with her some times and he partied constantly. It seemed like a lot of girls would come over to his place and "hang out". Sometimes he made her do stuff that she didn't enjoy very much, and at some point she couldn't remember she had woke up with a couple of tattoos. She would stay with some of the other girls sometimes just trying to get some sleep.
Her and Toby ran into Li one day walking down the sidewalk. At first Li tried talking to her, but Toby kept being rude to the man. Finally, Li walked off with a look of disgust at her tattoo. A couple of weeks after that Toby told her to "get lost". He was bored with her, and he thought she was a bit of a drag anyway.
One of the girls she met at Toby's place, named Sandy, took her in. She introduced Gloria to her pimp. At first Gloria did not want any part of Sandy's pimp, but she had picked up a little drug habit at Toby's place. Before she even knew what happened she was in as deep as she could get. She saw Toby and the band a few times after that. Sometimes they would pick her and Sandy up and take them off to party with them. She had no idea how low she had gotten until she tried to solicit a date from her old boyfriend, the deacon, one fine Sunday morning. She would never forget the look of horror on the man's face as he looked up at her on the street corner and said her name.
Gloria began to hate her existence. She was doing a lot of drugs, and even Sandy thought she was doing to much. Finally, one night she over dosed when she was with a customer. When she woke up she was in the hospital. There was a policeman there as well and he informed her that she was going to be under arrest once the doctors released her.
Henry came to see her in the hospital. They had a very long talk, and she realized that she had really missed him these last couple of years. She realized that she had given up a very good life for what she had become. She asked Henry if he could ever forgive her. His answer was yes.
Henry pulled some strings, and got Gloria into a rehab. He stuck by her throughout her recovery. He got her a lawyer who got her probation for the charges against her. Finally, the long awaited day arrived when Gloria came home and looked at the faces of her three children. For their family a long time of healing was about to begin, but it all started with Henry's forgiveness.

[I got the idea for this story from the book of Hosea. Chapters 1-3 tell a similar story to the one above. Hosea's wife Gomer had many lovers and finally Hosea put her away because of her unfaithfulness. Eventually Gomer's life came to ruin as she became a slave sold into prostitution. When Hosea found out where she was he went and bought her freedom. He forgave her and took her home with him. The book of Hosea shows a correlation between the prophets adulteress wife and the relationship between God and Israel. Check it out for yourself some time.]