I’ve discovered that “cold” does not have the same meaning everywhere.

In my part of the world we understand cold to a greater extend than in other parts of the world. In Canada cold has a greater depth of meaning because of the wider range of temperatures we experience.

Most places on earth experience cold, but the range of temperatures a region experiences will determine the extent of their understanding of cold. 

I remember driving to Florida for a winter vacation with my family. We had left a major snow blizzard back in Canada. In fact, we got out of “Dodge” just in time, or we would have been stuck there and not made our trip. As it was, the roads were treacherous for the first day and a half of our trip. 

When we finally made it to Florida, we ditched our winter coats and put on our spring jackets because it was not very warm there.

The next morning we were up very early to spend the day at Disney World. When I say early, I mean Lily got us there before the park workers arrived!

It was quite chilly standing around in our spring coats, but it was nothing like back home where we would have had every inch of skin covered in layers. 

After a while the park workers started to show up for work. What surprised me was that they were arriving for work in winter parkas. 

For some reason, I thought that winter coats were only sold above the 42nd parallel, but here these people were decked out in the latest polar fleeced, designer winter jackets.

My first thought was, “That’s a little overkill.” … I wished I had have had a heavier spring jacket with me, but I would never have thought of digging my winter coat out of the trunk of the car when I was in Florida.

But for people living in places like Florida, they don’t experience the range of temperatures we do in the north, so for them it was cold … winter coat cold.

This morning at 9:15 am, I took a tram in Spain. The sun was out; the temperature was about 14 degrees. I was the only one on the tram without a coat of some kind.

There was even a woman wearing a winter coat, a scarf wrapped around her neck a few times, and a pair of ear muffs. 

The ear muffs were excessive. I don’t know any Canadians who would wear ear muffs in temperatures above zero.

But cold in Spain doesn’t mean the same thing as cold in Canada. They don’t understand cold like I do. 

On the other hand, I don’t understand hot like they do here in Spain. I might have more experience with cold in Canada, but they have more experience with hot.

Here’s the thing: Your experience with something helps you understand it better. Your experience with forgiveness from God helps you understand forgiveness so that you can apply it to others. When you understand that you need to be forgiven and then experience forgiveness from God, you have a greater depth of understanding so that you can forgive others. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is your experience with forgiveness? Leave your comments below.