Forgiveness is hard but not impossible.
After all, it is one of the fundamental actions that allow redemption and healing to occur in our lives.
One man showed an example of forgiveness after he asked other Twitter users to join him in praying for the prisoner who killed his sister more than 20 years ago.
David A. Smither from Houston posted a series of tweets that surprised most of his followers. He shared how his family managed to heal throughout the years after his sister’s death.
Now a father, Smither was only a child when his sister Laura was kidnapped and killed a few blocks away from their home in Texas.
It was in 1997 when Laura Smither disappeared at the age of 12 only a few days before her 13th birthday. She left for a jog one morning and never came back.
Three years after William Lewis Reece was finally indicted for killing Laura, Smither is now traveling to meet him in prison. Before his visit, he asked fellow Twitter users for prayers.
“Dear friends, will you please pray for me? In 10 days I am going to try to visit the man who abducted and murdered my sister Laura 22 years ago. Pray that I can show him a reflection of Christ’s mercy and forgiveness, and call him back to the Father’s heart.
“The next step, that I feel called to, is to see him face to face, visiting at the prison where he is held, and to tell him in person what I have already told him by writing: that Christ loves him and is calling him home.
“Bill is a serial rapist and murderer,” he added. His “crimes are many and heinous. He was a pathological liar for most of his life, never taking responsibility for his crimes until recently. In 2016, he started confessing to 20 year old cold cases, including my sister’s.”
Smither went on and credited Reece’s confessions: “The backstory to those confessions is remarkable, but part of it — I believe — is that our family started praying for Bill in 2009, specifically praying that he would have a change of heart, repent, convert, and ultimately be saved by the love of Jesus.”
He continued: “In 2016, I wrote a letter to Bill, expressing forgiveness to him, and calling him to Christ. I told him that our family and many more had been praying for him for years. Not long after, he started talking.”
The two men talked for the past eight months, according to Smither’s next tweet. Throughout their conversation, Reece has “expressed contrition, asked for and received my forgiveness, and claims to pray daily for our family and those of all of his victims.”
“Please pray to bring this soul back to the Lord,” he added. “I have forgiven Bill, but it’s an ongoing journey into the heart of Christ’s love and I am far from finishing this. I am still repenting of my anger, held for too many years.
“Please pray for me, and please pray for Bill.”
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