Sunday, January 31, 2010
There is a way to be good again.
It has been on my mind a lot. I've been thinking a lot about restitution and redemption. I have decided to write down a few of my thoughts.
In the book "The Kite Runner", the main character, Amir witnesses the rape of his faithful childhood friend, Hassan. (Hassan and his father, Ali, are servants in the house of Amir's father.) After the rape, Amir is racked with guilt for not having done anything to save Hassan from being assaulted despite Hassan's "guileless devotion" to Amir. Amir eventually can't handle the pain, so he lies and tells his father that Hassan stole his new watch. Ali and Hassan must leave and Amir never sees them again. The Soviets invade Afghanistan in 1979, and Amir and his father flee to America where Amir marries and becomes a successful writer. After his father's death, Amir receives an unexpected call from his father's former Afghan business partner, Rahim Khan, asking him to come to Pakistan because "there is a way to be good again."
It is this phrase, "there is a way to be good again", which has caused me to experience a myriad of poignant thoughts and emotions recently.
Amir makes the journey to Pakistan and meets Rahim Khan where he learns that Hassan is dead and his son, Sohrab is in an orphanage in Afghanistan. Rahim Khan also reveals to Amir that he is actually Hassan's half brother. Amir's father slept with Ali's wife, and she bore him a son they named Hassan - a secret Amir's father took to the grave. And now, Rahim Khan tells Amir that there is a way to be good again. A way to make restitution for his father's sin and for Amir's cruelty to Hassan when they were children. At this meeting, Rahim Khan gives Amir a letter which was written by Hassan before he was killed by the Taliban.
"In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate. Amir Agha with my deepest respects.
My wife and son and I pray this letter finds you in fine health and in the light of God’s good graces. I’m hopeful that one day I will hold one of your letters in my hands and read of your life in America. I’m trying to learn English. It’s such a tricky language, but on day, Agha. I miss your stories. I’ve included a picture of me and my son, Sohrab. He’s a good boy. Rahim Khan and I taught him how to read and write so he doesn’t grow up stupid like his father. And can he shoot with that sling shot you gave me! But I fear for him, Amir. The Afghanistan of our youth is long dead. Kindness is gone from the land, and you cannot escape the killings. Always the killings. I dream that God will guide us to a better day. I dream that my son will grow up to be a good person, a free person, an important person. I dream that flowers will bloom in the streets of Kabul again and music will play in the samovar houses and kites will fly in the skies. And I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you’ll find an old faithful friend waiting for you. May God be with you always.
Hassan."
Now Amir has a chance to find the restitution and redemption he's been seeking since he was a child. A way to make right so many wrongs which have plagued his soul for so many years. He must go into Afghanistan and rescue Sohrab from the brutal Taliban.
I believe in restitution and redemption. I believe that there IS a way to be good again, and that nothing has to be final. As a Christian, I believe that restitution and redemption can only come in and through the Savior Jesus Christ. He can make everything good again. Only HE can put away the old and make all things new again. Whether it be a convict who has spent 19 years in hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread or a young Afghan whose childhood friend died before he could make amends for past wrongs. There is ALWAYS a way to be good again through Christ.
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation"
-2 Corinthians 5:16-18
This is the final scene of the movie "The Kite Runner" in which Amir has returned from Afghanistan with Hassan's son, Sohrab. Beautiful reconciliation.
In the book "The Kite Runner", the main character, Amir witnesses the rape of his faithful childhood friend, Hassan. (Hassan and his father, Ali, are servants in the house of Amir's father.) After the rape, Amir is racked with guilt for not having done anything to save Hassan from being assaulted despite Hassan's "guileless devotion" to Amir. Amir eventually can't handle the pain, so he lies and tells his father that Hassan stole his new watch. Ali and Hassan must leave and Amir never sees them again. The Soviets invade Afghanistan in 1979, and Amir and his father flee to America where Amir marries and becomes a successful writer. After his father's death, Amir receives an unexpected call from his father's former Afghan business partner, Rahim Khan, asking him to come to Pakistan because "there is a way to be good again."
It is this phrase, "there is a way to be good again", which has caused me to experience a myriad of poignant thoughts and emotions recently.
Amir makes the journey to Pakistan and meets Rahim Khan where he learns that Hassan is dead and his son, Sohrab is in an orphanage in Afghanistan. Rahim Khan also reveals to Amir that he is actually Hassan's half brother. Amir's father slept with Ali's wife, and she bore him a son they named Hassan - a secret Amir's father took to the grave. And now, Rahim Khan tells Amir that there is a way to be good again. A way to make restitution for his father's sin and for Amir's cruelty to Hassan when they were children. At this meeting, Rahim Khan gives Amir a letter which was written by Hassan before he was killed by the Taliban.
"In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate. Amir Agha with my deepest respects.
My wife and son and I pray this letter finds you in fine health and in the light of God’s good graces. I’m hopeful that one day I will hold one of your letters in my hands and read of your life in America. I’m trying to learn English. It’s such a tricky language, but on day, Agha. I miss your stories. I’ve included a picture of me and my son, Sohrab. He’s a good boy. Rahim Khan and I taught him how to read and write so he doesn’t grow up stupid like his father. And can he shoot with that sling shot you gave me! But I fear for him, Amir. The Afghanistan of our youth is long dead. Kindness is gone from the land, and you cannot escape the killings. Always the killings. I dream that God will guide us to a better day. I dream that my son will grow up to be a good person, a free person, an important person. I dream that flowers will bloom in the streets of Kabul again and music will play in the samovar houses and kites will fly in the skies. And I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you’ll find an old faithful friend waiting for you. May God be with you always.
Hassan."
Now Amir has a chance to find the restitution and redemption he's been seeking since he was a child. A way to make right so many wrongs which have plagued his soul for so many years. He must go into Afghanistan and rescue Sohrab from the brutal Taliban.
I believe in restitution and redemption. I believe that there IS a way to be good again, and that nothing has to be final. As a Christian, I believe that restitution and redemption can only come in and through the Savior Jesus Christ. He can make everything good again. Only HE can put away the old and make all things new again. Whether it be a convict who has spent 19 years in hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread or a young Afghan whose childhood friend died before he could make amends for past wrongs. There is ALWAYS a way to be good again through Christ.
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation"
-2 Corinthians 5:16-18
This is the final scene of the movie "The Kite Runner" in which Amir has returned from Afghanistan with Hassan's son, Sohrab. Beautiful reconciliation.
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