FOODFORTHOUGHT

NEVER TOO LATE
By Wayne Rice
Jun 13, 2005

On June 8, 1972, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, her clothes flaming
from gasoline bombs,fled the American-led assault on her village of
Trang Bang. With her eyes screwed shut and her mouth spread wide in a
scream of pain, she was captured on film in America's most remembered
Vietnam wartime photo.

In Officer John Plummer's nightmares, this picture flashed huge, in
black and white, to a sound track of children screaming. His order had
directed bombers to shower Kim Phuc's village with the chemical
explosives. For years, guilt over destroying and maiming the villagers
haunted the officer. Women and alcohol were his escape of choice.

Twenty years after the destruction of the village, Officer Plummer
asked Christ to take control of his life , unleashing God's ultimate
power to end guilt. Although free from guilt, he carried inside himself
scars somehow linked to the thick white scars on the neck, arm, and
back of the now-grown Vietnamese girl. Six years later, Plummer knew he
needed to find her. In an effort to meet her face to face, he tracked
her down while she was visiting America.

Unlike the June 1972 event, no photographer captured the moment when
Plummer explained to Kim Phuc who he was. But in the middle of a busy
sidewalk, the soldier, now 49 years old, and the child, now 33 years
old, embraced. "She just opened her arms to me," Plummer later said. "I
fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say is, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's all right," she replied as she patted Plummer's back, "I forgive,
I forgive."

-------

** It is our Christian responsibility to seek forgiveness for the wrong
we have done to God and to people we've hurt. With God, repenting of
our sins and asking pardon for them is never too late. "If we
acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins
and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, 'We have not
sinned,'...His Word is not in us" (1 John 1: 9-10). For Jesus' sake let
us ask forgiveness from our family and friends for the wrong we have
done and pardon those who have asked forgiveness from us. Nothing
you've ever done is too bad to ask forgiveness for. Saying sorry to
those we have hurt and asking for forgiveness is never too late.

PRAYER

"Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may listen to your word
attentively and obey it joyfully."

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# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 5:12 AM