July 1: Forgiving the Shark

In July 2011, six-year-old Lucy Magnum was playing in one-and-a-half feet of water at Ocracoke Island, North Carolina.  Her father, Craig, and mom, Jordan, were only 10 feet away.  Suddenly, Jordan heard Lucy scream and saw blood shooting out of her leg.  She had been bitten by a shark!

Craig, an emergency room doctor, stemmed the bleeding and rushed his daughter to a nearby hospital.  Though Lucy endured a severed artery and a tendon tear, there was no nerve damage so she was expected to make a full recovery.

After the incident, Lucy said that she hated sharks.  To calm her fears, her parents told her that the shark bit her because it was a case of “mistaken identity.”  He thought she was another fish, and when he found out she wasn’t, he swam away.  This made sense to Lucy.  On the Today Show, Jordan revealed that Lucy said, “I don’t care that the shark bit me. I forgive him.”

Imagine that.  A six-year-old forgave a shark that seriously harmed her.  Yet many of us hold on to grudges for much less of a reason.  Maybe we should look to the example of Lucy—and of Jesus—and say, “I forgive.”

Be merciful.  (Luke 6:36)

Jesus, help me to forgive others as You did.