Christian Living

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Profile In Forgiveness
© 2007

by

Stephen A. Peterson


In the summer of 2007, Nicolette Larson obtained a good, well paying job after an agonizing year and a half of unemployment. She tried desperately to do a great job to give her employer her absolute best effort everyday. Nicolette learned this wasn’t easy. Her boss, who was also the owner, was a perfectionist—the most demanding individual she had ever worked for.

On June 22nd, Nicolette did what she considered a very stupid act. She put a legal document that should have gone to a department store into an envelop addressed to one of the oil companies in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a mistake, if not caught, could have cost Nicolette’s law firm much embarrassment, a lost account, and for certain an expensive lawsuit.

Nicolette waited in fear for what was certain to be the results of such a terrible oversight on her part. She was sure her mistake would cost her her job.

Nicolette’s heart beat so rapidly she thought she would faint when her boss called her into his office then shut the door behind her.

Nicolette,” he said, “do you go to church anywhere, pray and read the Bible?”

“Sir, yes, sir! I do all that you ask, sir,” Nicolette responded trembling.

“Well, I suggest you go to church right now, pray and read Matthew, chapter six; verse fourteen and fifteen later,” he said.

Nicolette waited for a few minutes as he did not immediately dismiss her.

“That will be all Miss Larsen,” he said in a low tone of voice.

Nicolette went to Saint Francis Catholic Church in Oklahoma City prayed for an hour then left. Afterwards, she got into her car and sped off to go home. As soon as she arrived at home in Shawnee some forty miles away, she made a straight line to her bedroom and quickly removed her Bible from her bookshelf. Before she opened her Bible, she thought her boss’ reference to the chapter and verses of Matthew would be the message that she was fired. She just knew it was the verse wherein the sinner or sinners were condemned to eternal damnation—that is, the sinner would weep and gnash their teeth in the fires of hell.

As Nicolette nervously and prayerfully turned the pages of her Bible, she read the following:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, Your Father will not forgive your sins.”

“What did this mean to me?” thought Nicolette

When Nicolette came to work the next morning but received no verbal or written notice to see the owner and her boss, she breathed a sigh of relief, shed a tear of thanksgiving and said a short prayer of hope. She learned, in time, the owner/boss is a Christian who lives his Christianity.

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