When I google “trespassers will be,” I get these hits:
Trespassers will be …
- shot
- violated
- eaten
- prosecuted
They mean to say, this is private property. We don’t want you here.
Gone are the days when cutting through your neighbor’s yard to get to your friend’s house is okay. We know not to trespass; there will be consequences.
I was delighted when a friend shared seeing this sign in front of a church she walked past:
“Trespassers will be forgiven”
It gets you because you expect to see ‘shot’ or ‘prosecuted’, or worse: certainly not forgiven. So it draws you to the word, “forgiven.” That if you come on this property, it’s okay. You’re safe. You’re welcome. We’re friendly here. We’re the kind of folks that welcome strangers.
It’s amazing what our signs say about us.
The people who put up this sign knew this prayer and the power behind it.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
They are forgiven… as they forgive their trespassers. First one, then the other follows. Whoever trespasses against me, I will forgive not so I can earn my forgiveness but because that’s how God has already dealt with me. I am a participant in my own forgiveness and it involves the stranger. the wanderer. the seeker. the lost. God’s is a “pre-forgiveness” economy.
I think I would like to visit this church. To find out whether what’s inside matches what’s on the outside. A good reminder to double check if the same is true with me: do my insides match my outsides? After all, God’s always checking that — except to Him there’s no inside separate from the outside to Him. It’s all in plain view. When they’re not matching, God knows it.
I’d like to think I am consistent. That I’ve put down my “I’m Right and You’re Wrong” sign and left that completely to God. But secretly I know that if today both I and the unbelievers I love strolled through the pearly gates, me smiling and them dumb-founded, I could not resist the urge to say, “I told you so.” Still holding that sign.
It’s amazing what our signs say about us.
Perhaps that’s what God is working to complete in me. Helping me become a person that would not even consider saying “I told you so” to the one for whom this is new. And simply gush, “This is what I have been waiting so long to show you.”
Then we’ll both know what forgiveness looks like.
