A true story of forgiveness

There was an unbelievable news story more than a decade ago that came out of Western Kentucky. A young man named Tommy Piggich had been driving while drunk and hit and killed another teenage boy. The family of the boy who was killed was completely grief stricken and angry at Tommy Piggich and they prosecuted him to the full extent of the law to the point he was imprisoned. But the family of the boy who was killed was also a devout Christian family; they belonged to a local Church of Christ. And they became convicted that they needed to work through forgiveness.So they went to visit Tommy Piggich in prison and talked to him about forgiveness. In fact the mother of the boy who was killed made some cookies and took them to Tommy Piggich in prison.

When Piggich was released from prison this family invited him to go to church with them. And Tommy Piggich later became a Christian, was baptized in that Church of Christ. Tommy Piggich did not have any parents, he was an orphan. And they invited him to their home, and incredibly, eventually that family adopted Tommy Piggich as their son. He sat in the chair where their son who was killed had sat. He stood in line to receive his inheritance.

Now that is an incredible story but not quite when comparing to the love that God has for us. “What incredible love the Father has lavished on us. His son was sent into the world but the world did not know Him and killed Him. Yet the Father instead of giving us what we deserved, He lavished His love on us and not only forgave us but adopted us into His family. We sit at His table, we feast on His goodness, we stand in line to inherit His riches. (That’s why Paul said in Ephesians 3), “I pray that you may have the power to grasp how wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”