Love and forgiveness

"So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love."
"I tell you, that is why her sins are forgiven--because of her great love."
"Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she has loved much."
Three different translations of Luke 7:47

So I looked at three translations of today's Gospel reading to answer the question:
Which came first, the forgiveness or the love? In the first and third translations, it seems like the woman shows great love because her sins have been forgiven. In the second, her sins are forgiven because of her love. What gives? I think the bottom line in this is that forgiveness and love go hand in hand. Real love leads to forgiveness. Real forgiveness comes from love. They go together like peanut butter and jelly (thanks, Forrest Gump!) What does that look like in our lives? It means that, if we really love, we can go to the place, deep within our hearts and find God's grace to forgive. It's right there within us, all along. Our hearts sincerely want to reconcile and forgive because of our love for the other person. It doesn't mean the hurt didn't happen or that the pain just goes away, but that the love is bigger than the pain or hurt. The grace of God gives us that sense that our hearts are bigger, our love can overwhelm the hurt. Today, instead of nit-picking through the various translations (I saved you the trouble!), let's just remember that love and forgiveness go together, hand in hand, heart-to-heart. They are within our reach, too, deep in our hearts, to be given freely to others. Love, heidi