On December 20, 1974 on Friday afternoon when ten-year-old Chuck Carrier was approached by a man as he walked home from the school bus. The man introduced himself as a friend of Chuck’s father. He offered to give Chuck a ride to a special party they were having for his father. Assuming nothing was wrong, Chuck agreed to get in the man’s car. The man drove Chuck to an isolated location where he stabbed him multiple times in the back and chest with an ice pick. Eventually the man shot Chuck in the head and left him to die. For six days Chuck lay unconscious. He awoke, made his way to a road and was discovered by a man in a pickup truck. Chuck recovered but lost sight in one eye. Due to technicalities, the man who tried to kill him was left uncharged. Twenty years later Chuck was given the opportunity to meet his attacker. When Chuck met the man who caused him and his family so much harm, he offered to forgive him. Chuck met with the man regularly to tell him about Christ. In the final days of his attacker’s life, he considered Chuck his best friend. How was this extraordinary forgiveness possible? Chuck was a Christian who forgave like Christ forgave him.
Even more thrilling than the forgiveness of Chuck is the forgiveness offered by a man named Philemon to Onesimus, a slave, thief, and fugitive from justice. The book of Philemon is the thrilling story of what biblical forgiveness looks like in action.
