Some while back I visited an online greeting card website to send an electronic anniversary card to some friends. As I was glancing through this website's menu of choices, I noticed they had a separate category of cards devoted to "Forgiveness."  Since that is a pretty vital theological category, I naturally was drawn to check out those cards. Mostly they were humorous intended to be used for relatively minor hurts. "Forget about it," "Don't worry about it" were the sentiments of two cards. Another expressed forgiveness by saying, "Everybody is a work in progress."

Strikingly, however, on this website, as probably in most Hallmark stores, forgiveness cards were categorized right along with birthday and get well cards. That is, they were what could be called "Occasional Cards." You don't send a "Get Well" card just any old time, but occasionally you need such a sentiment and that's when you purchase and send just such a card. So also you may not need a forgiveness card very often, but once in a while such a thing may be handy.  Seen this way, forgiveness becomes a "now and then" matter.  No doubt this reflects the way a lot of people think.  But it cuts against the grain of the New Testament and of a passage like Matthew 18 where the assumption of Jesus seems to be that forgiveness is an ongoing, daily reality for each one of us.  Not only are we ourselves forgiven on a regular basis by God and by others, we must then turn around and forgive those who have hurt us.  It's not an occasional reality.  It's every day.