Unbroken

Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

Matthew 4:17

I was quite impressed with Angelina Jolie's movie "Unbroken". It is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an American prisoner of war, who survived horrible maltreatment at the hands of sadistic captors. During his 47 day ordeal at sea before he was captured by the Japanese, Louis vowed that if God would save them, he would devote his life to serving Him. He forgot about this prayer, especially during his harrowing captivity, but remembered it when he and his wife joined a Billy Graham Crusade in 1949,  years after he was freed. When Louis accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he suddenly had respite from years of having nightly nightmares about strangling the "Bird", his especially sadistic and violent torturer. "It was a miracle!" he said. He also repented of his excessive drinking and verbal abuse which almost sent his wife away from him. 

In 1950, he went to Japan to return to the Sugamo Prison. He met with the guards in the same stifling room where he had been “beaten, starved, openly humiliated and threatened with beheading over and over again.” There Louis spoke to them about love and forgiveness, and embraced them. Some even became Christians. In 1998, he attempted to meet with the "Bird", but Mutsuhiro Watanabe refused to see him.

How sad that Watanabe could not see God's gracious sign of forgiveness and His calling His son to return to Him and repent! No matter how black our heart is, no matter what evil we have done, God is ready and willing to accept us if we repent. Are there any signs we are missing? Or perhaps we need to be God's sign to someone badly in need of God's healing presence?