Melville Carson was a 22-year-old Pilot Officer during World War II when he was shot down during a bombing raid over Germany.
The only survivor of the four-man Handley Page bomber crew, he spent three years in Stalag Luft III prison camp, immortalized in the film The Great Escape. He played the violin in the camp’s dance band and became the leader of the camp orchestra, whilst tunnel diggers hid earth underneath the raked seats.
'I realized that if I didn't forgive and had this bitterness in my heart then I am actually sowing the seeds for the next conflict... In my case, I find I daily need to ask for the gift of a new nature, a nature motivated by the love of God and free from the burden of having to prove something about myself; a new nature of son and heir [of God], not a hired servant who is on and off duty part of the time; and a new nature that rejects the victim role and keeps the perspective of miracles.'
