"Can a country known for radical brutality become a country known for an even more radical forgiveness?" That's the question Catherine Claire Larson asks in her new book, "As We Forgive."

Larson, whose book was inspired by the award-winning documentary film of the same name, paints a gripping picture of the Rwandan Tutsi survivors of genocide, who in 1994 endured 100 days of unimaginable violence at the hands of their Hutu neighbors. In just three months, nearly a million people were shot, hacked to death, raped, and tortured. The survivors lost everything-homes, families, and hope.

But that was only their first trial. Seven years after this horrific war, the Rwandan government started releasing from prison more than 70,000 perpetrators of genocide.

Larson vividly describes in her book, the dreadful decision the survivors had to make. The people who had destroyed their lives were returning. Would they choose fear and hate and violence, or forgiveness and reconciliation?

As Larson writes so beautifully, many are choosing forgiveness.

Take the story of Rosaria.
Her sister and her two children were pummeled to death by a group of Hutu men from their village. Among them was a man named Saveri.
While in prison Saveri heard the Gospel. He repented of his cruelty, and through a reconciliation program begun by Prison Fellowship Rwanda, asked Rosaria for forgiveness. After a series of painful meetings, she eventually forgave him-freeing him from guilt and despair, and Rosaria from the bonds of hatred.
Later, Saveri, along with other repentant killers, built homes for Rosaria and other survivors. "Hands that had once swung machetes in violence," Larson writes, "now smooth clay bricks in peace."

Or take the stories of Devota and Monique.
Both of them lost all of their children in the genocide. With the help of Christian volunteers, they came to understand that Christ not only bears their sin, but their pain. And once they had surrendered their pain to Christ, they actually sought out their perpetrators-and forgave them.

Or the story of the children of the Nyange School.
One of the most poignant stories Larson tells is of the children of the Nyange School. These children, Hutus and Tutsis, had become close friends in the wake of the genocide. When Hutu militia invaded their classroom, their love for Christ and each other was put to the ultimate test. The Hutu militiamen ordered all the Tutsis to one side, all the Hutus to the other. The students refused to move. Many of them were shot because of their love and faithfulness to one another.

If that love, that forgiveness, can be so strong in such darkness and unimaginable hatred, then it is possible for all of us.

• Possible for the wife who continues to put her heart on the line when her husband has grown cold towards her.
   

• Possible for the church deacon who won't ignore the growing rift in the congregation, but who seeks to be a mediator.
   

• Possible for the daughter who refuses to let her mother's stinging criticisms keep her from loving her.

 Ultimately, what the authors shows us in As We Forgive is that of all human actions, forgiveness is perhaps the most powerful mirror of Christ's love.

The most complete picture of the awesome power of love and forgiveness was displayed in the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God on the Cross of Calvary.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

You see, the “whosoever” not only included the murderers, torturers and rapists of the Rwandan genocide, bur people like you and me.  And together, we all need to experience the forgiveness and the love of God. And when we do, our lives are gloriously transformed and our world becomes a better and a more tolerable place.