she is rescued by love

She walks into the coffee house looking windblown and alive.

The door shuts behind her and she absent-mindedly unbuttons her coat as she looks around with a hesitant but unguarded expression. She takes in her surroundings as the appraising glances of a few men and the intrigued stares of a few women in the shop sweep over her. She is aware but unaffected by their attention, as her eyes meet mine across the room and she smiles. She hurries over and gives me a quick hug, un-phased by the stares that continue to follow her to our table.

She joins me at our table and excitedly tells me some random fantastic news and my attention is riveted on her, drawn into her happiness like a flower seeks a sunbeam. I laugh with her.

She is different from who she was when I met her… there has been a beautiful change in her.

I look at her and think of that change. Subtle but strong… patient but unyielding. It took time. There is peace about her that makes her one of those women you can’t take your eyes off of. Her joy, her pain, her sorrow and her victories are all captured in that peace… the essence of who she is. She is confident and courageous and full of life.

She is mystery.

Love changed her.

She is vulnerable and intimate in her speech and keenly aware of her deepest pain… her story is poignant and powerful but it doesn’t own her anymore. She harnessed its power some time ago and she has shared it with me.

Her contagious, beaming smile would never allude to the cruelty she has endured at the hands of evil men. Her animated story telling would never have you believe she was once afraid to even speak. Her deep, peaceful eyes don't speak of her silent tears during the beatings she has endured. Her sincerity of heart doesn't speak of the abandonment, abuse and loneliness that consumed her for so long.

Her pain has a purpose now.

She stands confident and sure because the depth of her sorrow increased the joy of her rescue.

She never knew she was worth fighting for until a hero stood between her and death. Now she fights for others in honor of her savior.

Her rescuer saw her worth. She reaches out to others because life reached out to her.

I love her because my story is the same... and she gives me courage to share it.

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“She”... is every woman I am privileged to know and love. Their stories are different but the same... tragedy to triumph… sorrow to serenity... loneliness to peace. They fight harder and love deeper each day than they did the day before.

They are valiant and vulnerable... and their triumph is scandalously beautiful.

Grace and feist, grief and healing… they reach into the darkness and their comforting touch brings life in the lives of those around them.

They love because they know love.

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:9-11