An Eye for an Eye

Danar was silent as he rode home from his first pencak silat competition. He had been looking forward to the Indonesian martial arts competition and had even won third place, but now he found it hard to celebrate.His father looked at him. "You've been awfully quiet, Danar," Ayah said. "What's the matter?"Danar sighed, then blurted out, "I gave up my free time and rode my bike really far to go cheer Budi's soccer game last week, and Ucok's mathlete the week before. They both said they were coming today, but they didn't show up. And they didn't explain why either." Danar glanced at his phone, but there were no new messages. "I'm sorry to hear that, Danar. It hurts when people don't show up for you."Danar crossed his arms. "Well, I'm never going to show up for them again!"Ayah frowned. "Danar, have you heard the saying 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'?" Danar shook his head. "It means that trying to get back at people for the ways they hurt us doesn't help anyone, because everyone does hurtful things," Ayah said. "We all make mistakes and sin against God and one another. Each one of us would deserve revenge because everyone is guilty." Ayah turned to look at Danar. "If Jesus had followed the practice of an eye for an eye, do you think anyone would be saved?""No," Danar said. "We all deserve to be punished for our sins, but Jesus took the punishment for us. We learned a verse about that at church--'While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'"Ayah nodded. "And He tells us to forgive others when they hurt us." "I know. I just don't understand why my friends didn't even bother to tell me they weren't coming." Danar looked dejected."Why don't you try to talk to them? Maybe something happened," said Ayah."All right." Just then, Danar's phone beeped. "Ayah, Budi just texted me, and Ucok is in the hospital! He got into a bicycle accident on his way home from the park. He was playing soccer with Budi--they must have forgotten about my competition." Danar looked at his father. "Can we go to the hospital now?""Sure thing." Ayah made a turn for the hospital. -Ruth Setyadi