Who Bears the Onus of Forgiveness?

In Delia Owens best-selling book, Where the Crawdads Sing, readers are introduced to a young girl named Kya living in Barkley Cove in 1969. Known to locals as “Marsh Girl,” she had lived a hard, lonely life, abandoned and forgotten by virtually everybody. As her story unfolds, one of those characters returns to the marshes of North Carolina. Tate was her first love, had taught her to read, and had become the only family she knew. He had left the swamp for success elsewhere, promising to return for her. But Tate never returned, and he never wrote to explain why.

One night Tate comes trolling up to her front door on an old fishing rig. Kya is filled with rage as he attempts to apologize:

Kya, leaving you was not only wrong, it was the worst thing I have done or ever will do in my life. I have regretted it for years and will always regret it. I think of you every day. For the rest of my life, I’ll be sorry I left you. I truly thought that you wouldn’t be able to leave the marsh and live in the other world, so I didn’t see how we could stay together. But that was wrong.

He continues, “I knew how many times you’d been left before. I didn’t want to know how badly I hurt you. I was not man enough. Just like you said.” Finishing his plea, Tate watched her until she asked, “What do you want now, Tate?”

He responded, “If only you could, some way, forgive me.”

As Kya looks at her toes, she thinks to herself

“Why should the injured, the still bleeding, bear the onus of forgiveness?”

It’s a good question. One we should ponder every time we think about the work of Christ on the cross.