Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Hammarskjöld frames forgiveness not as a legal pardon or a mere emotional release, but as a restorative act that answers a deep, almost primal longing: the child’s wish that damage could be undone. The imagery of the “broken” made “whole” and the “soiled” made “clean” suggests repair and purification—an inner transformation that reopens the possibility of relationship, integrity, and moral renewal. The line implies that forgiveness is uniquely capable of interrupting cycles of injury and resentment by reconstituting meaning after harm. It also hints at humility: the “miracle” is not denial of wrongdoing, but the difficult human capacity to remake life after it.