Tuesday, April 10, 2007

My dear God,

The tragedies of abuse linger on long after the abuse has past. Their tenacles wrap themselves around victims for a lifetime. Only the miraculous healing power of God can finally break the grip of the past.

There once was a baby boy, Lord, who came into the world pure and fine. His promise was great except for the fact that his parents abused him from the time he was born. His promise was beaten from him. His innocence robbed. His mind tortured. And now his actions decades later will cost him a great price. Such injustice.

Let's talk about his suffering, dear God. Memories haunt him as if the abuse is happening now, in this present moment. Never free, he takes drugs to numb the pain. No matter where he goes, what he does, the grip is tight as a vice, and it's getting tighter.

The battered boy now turned man, husband and father will probably take his own life if things don't dramatically change. And he takes hold of the Heavenly Father who can give him another chance at life. He desperately needs a Heavenly Parent who can transform the God awfulness into a model of beauty and purity that he is.

O God, how can we reclaim our lives after such a long lifetime of horror? How do we rid ourselves of unwanted images of the past that suck the life right out of us? How do we rise to a new place, leaving the past, surrendering it, taking hold of the light that has the power to dispel every darkness?

Yes, a valley of dry bones can pick up flesh and air and begin to dance around. A dead man can live again. The blind can see and the deaf can hear. The leper can be cleansed. And so can every wounded soul find hope.

You are the God of love; for you have loved every person into being. A man and woman conceive but the stuff of creation is your work. What is born is your creation. And nothing, not even the worst vile thing in the world can steal away the God that you yourself have placed inside us. No offending abuser can touch it. They can get close, but never close enough. This piece is pure, untampered, lovely. This is you within us, a divine being who is carried inside us always. This reality can transform us, change our present, give us hope for the future. Love drives us to greater heights where hope is eternal.

Oh, how I wish I had the power to change tormented lives. I can counsel, preach, model, pray, love; but I cannot save.

You are the only hope
for many,
Great God.
Help injured souls
see the God-placed beauty
you have placed within them.
Grant them mercy,
that drips into eternity
and courage to
break the back
of the past.
Let your love come forth
again and again
like the surety
of ocean waves.
Make peace their final home.

Always, Andrea