One could reminisce about the joys of being loved by a father—recalling how dad taught you to ride a bike, picked you up from school, or showed you how to shoot a ball. For some, cherishing memories also means recalling the positive words that shaped who they’ve become.
This was an experience Caesar Gomez could not relate to.
To Caesar, the father who gave him life was the reason why he hated his life growing up. The father he expected to love him like no one else ended up inflicting wounds that would haunt him for years.
To Caesar, there’s no room for forgiveness for a father who, in a moment of anger, threw his own son out of a window for crying.
“I realized that even when I was still a child, my father was cruel. The things he did got stitched into my heart,” he recalled.
Like Caesar, do you carry the weight of a painful history and a fractured relationship with your father? Has your anger over the things he did and didn’t do hindered your journey toward forgiveness and reconciliation?
Remember, you are not alone. Your scars are valid.
The only vivid memory Caesar had with his dad was his desire to have his father pay for the pain he caused. He wanted to seek revenge for himself and his mother.
When he thought that his misery would end with his father’s death, Caesar realized that his anger was so deeply rooted that, even in his dreams, his painful experiences continued to haunt him.
To escape the pain, Caesar chased after vices. His anger towards his father acted like a slow-spreading disease, gradually taking control of his life.
As the years passed, the peace he yearned for remained elusive.
Until, one sleepless night, he tuned into an episode of the 700 Club Asia.
In that unexpected moment, he found solace by surrendering his life to Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Through that heartfelt prayer, he discovered the peace he longed for.
“I surrendered to God all the resentment, anger, or bitterness I felt towards everything my father did to us. I don’t want it to repeat in myself, my family, and my children,” Caesar shared.
He was able to forgive the father who never apologized, and through that act of forgiveness, he found peace and healing that no vice could ever provide.
God met Caesar in his trauma and healed him whole. This compelled him to build his family with the love he didn’t experience from his dad.
With joy, he shares, “The feeling of freedom cannot compare to any riches.”
You might think that God doesn’t understand your pain. Perhaps, you even harbored anger towards him for your painful childhood.
But as what Psalms 147:3 says, God desires to heal you from the wounds and free you from anger.
So, if you’ve been holding on to your resentment for so long, surrender it to God.
Through God’s forgiveness, Caesar was able to not only forgive but love in a way that he never experienced. God wants to do the same with you.
Know Jesus today and let Him heal you and transform your life.