A Brother's Forgiveness

     Earlier today I exchanged text messages with my younger brother and what he said brought me to tears. First, let me explain that my brother and I have not been good friends most of our lives, not that we didn't get along some of the time, but that there was definitely a lot of sibling rivalry between us. We fought daily, either verbally or physically and sometimes both, but at the same time we have been each other's shoulder to cry on. We have always known that if nothing else we had each other. We fought with each other, and for each other, and I think that's pretty common in siblings who are close in age, but still I did not expect him to say what he did. Since becoming adults, my brother and I have had  relatively few altercations, but this is still something that bothered me and  I have been praying for a while now off and on for healing in this relationship but I didn't imagine it would come about as it did.
       At first the conversation this morning had been about his health, my 'baby' brother is 6'4 and 200+ pounds with a lot of back pain that he has finally decided to see a doctor about. Today was his appointment and as he had promised he was letting me know how it went. After explaining to me his pain, what they had discovered was causing it and what the plan was to get him well again he told me "Don't worry though sis, I'll be able to help you and Nick move because they gave me a back brace, I just have to be careful how I lift." I was shocked and grateful! I really hadn't expected his help because of the trouble he had been having with his back and I told him so, but my brother just laughed and said it was no big deal we are family and that's what we do. This alone humbled me because I don't think I really deserve this level of kindness from him, but it's what happened next in our conservation that truly has me praising God today.
       As I said earlier, my brother and I fought a lot and to be perfectly honest I need to admit my part in it. I have not always been a good sister to him. I am tough on him, and unfortunately very often quick to judge him and point out his mistakes. I'm quick to lose my temper on him and too often condescending or dismissive where he is concerned. I know these things and have been trying to improve in these areas with varying levels of success and failure over the last year. Then when I shared my feelings with him on this my brother said something that not only humbled my heart further, it honestly took the pressure off me too.
       My brother told me that it was okay, that we were young and he forgives me. That we both made mistakes and that I had become an amazing woman in his opinion. That I had helped him to become a better man by all that unwanted correction. Suddenly all the guilt I carried was gone. There was no longer a need in my heart to 'make up for the past' because I now understood to my brother there was no hurt in the past anymore, just a future of being better friends and better sibling's.  I cried at this revelation, at my brother's love and forgiveness for me when I hadn't even forgiven myself. I cried because of the man my 'baby' brother had become and how his love and forgiveness had released me from the guilt I had carried. I cried because of how much this love and forgiveness reminded me of God's love for us. How with God, He no longer sees our past mistakes but sees us as new. I cried because I know God has answered my prayers for healing and reconciliation, I know that I was already forgiven and released, I just had to accept it. Praise God for the many wonderful ways He works!

Proverbs 15:30
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.
 
Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool

Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known 
 
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him