If I do not forgive, I will still be blind.
1. Sin is the symbol of attack.
²Wherever I see it, it will cause me pain.
³As forgiveness is the only means by which the vision of Christ can come to me.I
⁴When I accept what His vision shows me as the simple truth, I am completely healed.
⁵Come, my brother, and let me look on you.
⁶Your loveliness reflects my own.
⁷Your sinlessness is mine.
⁸You are forgiven, and I with you.
2. This is how I would look on everyone today.
²My brothers are Your Sons.
³Your Fatherhood created them,
and gave them all to me as part of You,
and of my own Self.
⁴Today I honor You through them,
and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.
I To forgive is simply to stop telling myself stories about my brother and about myself. Those stories—whether pleasant or unpleasant—are always colored by the past and by the emotions they awaken in me: satisfaction, fear, or anger. They attract me because I find them exciting, and that excitement makes me feel “alive” in a world I believe to be real. Yet that voice which narrates and embellishes the story is none other than my own, and while I listen to it, I cannot hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit or see with the vision of Christ.
Guilt acts as a filter that distorts what I see. If I define someone by a past mistake, I cease to see them as they are now. To maintain that definition is to live frozen in the past and to block myself from perceiving the truth of the present. This not only separates me from my brother, but also keeps me blind to reality.
To forgive is to release those definitions and judgments so I may look again—without the weight of the past—granting my brother the opportunity to show what he truly is. This act, though it may seem small, opens my vision and restores my ability to perceive our shared innocence.
If I do not forgive, I will remain blind.
When I look through the eyes of Christ, I see my brothers as innocent.