short on forgiveness

I thought to myself, how can we forgive other people? Say "You hurt me but I'm still ok." See, we are told to forgive people, but why is it ok? It's ok because of something more important, God has us in his hands so nothing people can do will really affect us.
That's the normal idea. But let's extrapolate that.
God forgives us...arbitrarily or because of something bigger? Maybe he died on the cross because we were worth it? And I don't mean 'worth it' like we have any power or something. If we did, we would save ourselves. God valued the pleasure he would get out of forgiving us and letting us live in his presence above the excruciating pain of the cross.
Maybe this is related to why we stick with friends when they're going through tough times. We value their restored condition and the joy it gives us (not primarily the service they can provide for us) to see them well.
Along the lines of a previous post, we could say that God stuck with his creation, his works of art not yet completed, and considered his works worth the effort to not destroy but keep shaping into beautiful creations.
I do realize that this post especially, and the last 3 a little, clash a little with common ideas. (actually a LOT of my posts do that) I'm going to keep thinking about it. Talk to me or posts comments on my blog or facebook if you have ideas.

P.S.
Due to the comments of a dear friend on facebook, I should add a couple notes:
1) My post was about how to deal with people hurting you and be able to forgive them - specifically in terms of actual damage done to your person.
2) You forgive people by first saying "You really hurt me and that was wrong", while to yourself you add "but that doesn't kill me because I have God".
3) Second, you cancel the legal debt against you "I forgive you." [you do NOT have the right to retaliate in any case because they are made in the image of God too]
4) For added motivation, remember that God forgave you.