I am about to share with you a true story, sad to say. I am hoping that if there is something between you and another, something unsaid or unforgiveness or just something unresolved, that this story will prompt you to take action.

My Grandma was 87 years old when she was called to heaven. She carried a grudge to her grave, but there is more to the story than just carrying a grudge. Her Dad died when she was a baby, so she did not have the blessing of knowing him. There was only one known photo of my Grandma’s Dad that survived the test of time. That photo was in the possession of my Grandma’s nephew.

For reasons that are not quite clear, Grandma’s nephew did not like Grandma. He seemed nice enough to me, but I was too young to understand much. As long as I can remember, my Grandma would talk about wanting a copy of the photo of her Dad and how her nephew would never allow a copy to be made for some reason.

Grandma had a whole collection of family photos on her wall to include her Mom and siblings. The photos included her own children and of course, grandchildren, like me. I used to love looking at those photos and at the faces staring back at me that were our ancestors. While most of them I had never met, they also had features that were very familiar as they looked like people in my life at the time.

Through the years, I tried to use the internet to find a photo of Grandma’s Dad. I used the census sites, ancestry sites and researched to no avail. After my Grandma passed away, I was the grandchild who was blessed to receive her wall of family photos. I created a book as I wanted to carefully preserve them, they each had her handwriting on the back: who the people were, the dates and locations. The photos meant a lot to me because they meant a lot to her.

Years later, I received an envelope from my Grandma’s nephew, he had encountered a series of tragedies in his life and decided to send me the photo of my Grandma’s Dad. I could not believe it, finally the quest was about to end!! I carefully removed the photo from his handwritten card. The photo looked familiar to me. I got out the book where I had carefully preserved the photos from my Grandma’s wall. One of the photos on Grandma’s wall was in fact her Dad. It was mislabeled as her Dad’s brother. All those long years, she had the photo of her Dad right there on her wall.

I am not sure how the photo was labeled incorrectly or who confused the information. But the grudge that was held for decades and carried to her grave was for no reason. The very thing that Grandma lost sleep over and was so hurt over was right before her eyes. Her Dad had been there the entire time keeping a loving, watchful eye over her. Grudges only hurt the person holding it.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You so much for Your love and forgiveness. Thank You that we have the example of mercy and grace in Jesus. Please help us to forgive and not hold grudges. Please show us any grudges that we may be holding onto – known and unknown. Help us to let go and be freed as we free others. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.