"I wanted you to see this view."

"'My Lord, why did you bring me here?'

'I wanted you to see this view,' he answered very gently indeed.

'I am looking at it,' she said, just a little breathlessly. 'Tell me, my Lord, what do you see?'

He answered slowly and clearly: 'I see the dark places of the earth full of the habitations of cruelty. I see multitudes of human souls fainting and scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, and I am moved with compassion on them, Grace and Glory.'

After a long time, she spoke again, but in a voice so low it was scarcely audible. 'I think I understand, my Lord.'"

                   (From Mountains of Spices, by Hannah Hurnard)

//

"I wanted you to see this view." 
I read this after a day of being educated on sexual abuse and trafficking, after a week of catching new glimpses of God's heart towards me as His child, after weeks of studying and learning about trauma and pondering what it will be like to be surrounded by it through foster care, after many moments of pondering what it will be like going down to Central America as a mother who has a soft spot for little children and fellow mamas that was not there before... 

And let's just say it resonated very deeply with me. 

Those moments where my heart is broken and the tears well up as I realize how little I knew of the pain people suffer around me and how deep the darkness can be. 

Those moments of remembering the love that God has shown me, and how much He longs for that love to be felt by others. 

Those moments where all I want to do is bring healing to the deep hurts that people have in their hearts.

I sit up on that mountaintop and look down with the King at the endless expanse of valleys where people live in darkness and pain and wonder what can be done? 

If all He is looking for is one willing child to be available for Him to use, then my response is, "here I am, send me."

No, I can't do anything of my own effort to reach into the depths of human hurt and bring healing. But I know the One who can. I know the One who has declared me able to do anything He calls me to do through Christ.

Besides, isn't He the One people need? Isn't His life what brings life to others?

He lets me see and feel some of what He sees and feels, but not just so that I am in the know. It is so that I, like Jesus, can be broken and poured out for others.

Love is painful... but it is also healing.

Love gives up all while never ceasing to give.

Love requires much of His followers, but love meets every single need His followers have. 

Love beckons me to lay down my life so that His life can come spilling through. 

Love suffers long... suffers much... suffers as long as necessary... so that one broken heart can be bound up by the Great Physician's own bandages and brought healing.

It feels like a great honor to be asked by God to be a part of this kind of love reaching others, even if it's just one little one whose heart is broken, or one fellow mama caught on the wrong side of things, or one desperate human being who is hurting and questioning and wondering if God sees them or cares.

"Why?" You ask.  

Because it is this same Love that wins my heart to Jesus over and over. 

It is this same Love that has broken down many walls that have held me back from knowing Him. 

It is this same Love that has brought healing to my own heart many times -and continues to bring healing. 

It is this same Love that captures my attention and stirs in me desires to know Him more. 

...And the deeper I go, the more convinced I become that I am His beloved child, and the more convinced I am of that, the stronger that desire to know Him and make Him known becomes. 

Yes... I am excited to be the hands and feet of this heavenly love. 

This is what we are commissioned to do, my friends. 

I am not the only one He has set His love upon and created for a specific purpose. This is true of you, too. 

And the farther we step into this calling, the more we see -truly see- what God sees when He sees others. The more we understand His "why" for leaving us here on this broken earth. 

We aren't here for ourselves... We are here for others. 

We are here so that Jesus can redeem broken people through His own people who also were once broken and lost, but who now have been redeemed.

You see, we were once citizens of the kingdom of darkness, slaves to sin, bruised and battered by this sin-sick world. 

But now, we are children of light, citizens of the Kingdom of Light, and called to shine that light into the darkness.

We are carriers of a life more beautiful than words can express, a Life that brings healing and breathes life into others. 

And when others meet the One who lives in us, they are given an opportunity to experience healing and redemption too. 

What view has God given you, my fellow child of God? Let Him use it to stir compassion in you and love for those around you that is of a heavenly sort, for it is Jesus in you that can makes all the difference in this dark, broken world.  

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." (2 Cor 4:6-7)

//

To see all of my previous posts on love, click here. 

 

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