• strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_validate() should be compatible with views_handler::options_validate($form, &$form_state) in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 607.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_submit() should be compatible with views_handler::options_submit($form, &$form_state) in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 607.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter_boolean_operator::value_validate() should be compatible with views_handler_filter::value_validate($form, &$form_state) in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter_boolean_operator.inc on line 159.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_style_default::options() should be compatible with views_object::options() in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_style_default.inc on line 24.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_validate() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_validate(&$form, &$form_state) in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 134.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_submit() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_submit(&$form, &$form_state) in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 134.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/active5/public_html/drupal6_multisite/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 906.

Pressing in Hope

Submitted by kim on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 21:35 in

Kneeling on the floor, I scoop her into my arms.  Her body heaves with sobs.  Her brokenness speaks through tears telling of the evil of jail.  Her fear resonates in the reports of the lab tests, pneumonia, the progression of her cancer.  Shame echoes as she shares experiences of sexual abuse as a child.  A scarred identity that drove her into a life of humiliating addiction.  Fifteen minutes into my visit, I am picking up the pieces of a fragmented life spilled on the white hospital blanket.  

Why me, Lord?  Why did you call me to be her friend? This is not easy. Yet the God of all comfort, comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble.  Did the rain of pain come just recently so I knew the Comforter afresh?  So I could be His arms embracing His daughter?  

The flowers in my hand smash against her back.  Will they endure this embrace? Will I endure this pain for the fruit of holding her burden for a moment?

I hardly have faith for my own brokenness today.  My heart seems empty, what do I have to pour into her dry one?   I calm her sobs with deep breathing.  We are two women who have known the pain of childbirth, yet struggle to remember to breath through the pain of healing.  

She speaks of fault.  Who bears fault when a child is sexually abused, she asks.  Like a tattoo, the ink of shame has soaked into her skin, become apart of her.  I reach past the skin stain to the corner of her soul and whisper she is wonderfully made.  "I am?" she questions.  Can I press hope into her life by holding her tighter?

May she realize she is more than sum of her past mistakes. Redeemer, be her glue.

 

Fox Catchers: I Corinthians 1:4; Psalm 139, Isaiah 58