The scandal of true forgiveness

On 13th November 2004, 18 year-old Ryan Cushing was driving around New York with some friends. For some reason, they had bought a frozen turkey with a stolen credit card. As they were driving along the freeway, Cushing threw the turkey out of the car into the path of on-coming traffic. It went straight through the windscreen of Victoria Ruvolo, shattering her jaw, fracturing her eye socket and crushing her oesophagus. She was in a coma for 2 weeks.

But a year later, when she heard that Cushing was going to trial and likely to get a very long prison sentence, Victoria insisted on going to court. She told the judge that she was a Christian and that she didn’t want this young man to “rot in jail”. She said: “He has done a stupid thing, but there’s no point in two lives being spoiled”. The judge was amazed by her grace and with her blessing, sentenced Cushing to just 6 months in jail with a year of community service. Once the court was dismissed, Ryan Cushing walked up to Victoria with tears streaming down his face and apologised profusely for spoiling her life. She pulled him into a hug and told him: “Learn from this experience and do something good with your life.” Afterwards, on TV, she said: “Some people can’t understand why I’ve done this, but I feel that God has forgiven me for all the dumb things I’ve done in my life and that he has given me a second chance. I believe that God would want me to do the same thing for Ryan.”

Ryan Cushing served his sentence and did his year of community service. But to this day he still helps teenagers who are on probation. And Victoria Ruvolo still proclaims the healing power of forgiveness to everyone who will listen.

As with any story of genuine forgiveness, there is a whiff of scandal about what Victoria Ruvolo did. Did this young man really deserve to be forgiven? Probably not. But at the heart of this story is God’s grace. When Victoria asked Jesus into her life, God forgave her for everything in her past. Which challenged her to forgive Ryan Cushing.

Like many of you, I have been praying for our new King recently. But this story inspires me to keep praying for a spirit of forgiveness, to flow through every member of his family, and for all those for whom forgiveness could be a great healer.

MIKE SIMM Minister of Southgate Church