So, to challenge myself, I have linked up again with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. Every Friday, a prompt is given, and bloggers from across the globe give their best stuff in just five minutes. No over thinking… minimal editing… and a quick spattering of thoughts on a simple prompt.
Tonight’s prompt: SHE
Go
She was making ice cream sundaes. As I ordered mine, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her arms. I couldn’t be polite. They screamed at me. Death and pain and destruction screamed at me from her scars.
I have seen scars like this before, but not to this extent. Her silent stripes declared loudly years of pain, sadness, loneliness, self-loathing, depression, loss of hope, death…
As my husband and I went to pull out of the parking lot with our ice cream and two babies in the backseat, I broke down.
SCREAMED *STOP!*
We can’t just leave her! We can’t know TRUTH and LOVE and just leave her here!
So, I went back. I waited for a break in the line.
She was pouring strawberry syrup onto vanilla ice cream.
I walked up to the counter and I told her, “My husband came to this small town for a doctor’s appointment. We live almost three hours away in another state. My kids and I weren’t even supposed to come with him… but I just felt led to. So here I am… and I might just sound like the craziest person in the world to you, but I think I came all this way because God wants me to tell you that He sees you. He knows you. He has a perfect plan for your life and you are not alone.”
It seems so easy now. When you have encountered love to share it…. But there was so much more I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her about the Man who had scars himself to prove His redeeming love for her. Who took stripes on Himself for her healing and freedom… But all I could find were a few simple words.
“He loves you. He sees you. He has a plan for your life.”
With tears streaming down my face, I left my contact information and walked out of the store.
But she never falls far from my heart. A girl in a small town far away who needed love to walk into her life.
And in the frame of a 26 year old stay at home mom from a state away, HE did… and my prayer is that neither of us will ever be the same.
