Of broken hearts and restoration.

I held a stranger in my arms last night. She was cold and broken on the inside out and, filled with pain, afraid of the of the ghosts of the past that had come to haunt her. She held me so tight, I was afraid I would be ripped to shreds and yet I knew I wouldn't let her go even if I had the chance to.......

I hadn't been to church in I while... OK, I had been to church but just not the one my papa and mama are ministers at. I have never been overly enthusiastic about being a pastor's kid and given that I was a bit of a tomboy when I was younger, you imagine my horror at being all dolled up in pink, silly looking girly dresses and being made to sing in front of a congregation. Then as I grew older, I having to join some kind of ministry at every stage of my life and by default, be the said ministry leader and so on and so forth. I felt a strange need to escape this life and that is how my diabolical alter ego was born; the one who has successfully burst out of her spiritual bubble and decided to adventure a little......

Anyhow, there was a meeting at church and the old folks wanted me to go. I hated the idea, I had spent the whole day at the office and all I wanted to do was go sweet talk my movie guy into giving me a couple of free movies and head home. I ended up going, I guess if you knew my mom you would kow why.

We were late and the speaker had already started. He wasn't one of the fiery types and I was glad because I had a headache already. He wore a banale grey suit and had unassuming forgettable features; the kind that you could pass on a street and forget immediately. His lips were moving but I could barely hear what he was saying, I was too busy flirting with the cute stranger next to me.

I don't know what he said but he got my attention. His gaze held a sort of tangible magnetic intensity and I was suddenly fearful that he could see right through me. He talked about emotional wounds that cause heartbreak, how in His ministry, Jesus was so sure about his father's love and what it must have felt like for him to be deserted on the cross for us. He talked about rejection and how destructive it is and how Christ came to restore us from that destruction. All this time he looked at me, his intense gaze fixed as if to say 'don't bother hiding' I can see you!'

He asked the congregation to share their testimonies and each one came in tears sharing the unbearable pain they carried, the heartbreak they felt, the shame they hid from...... I sat in my chair and felt something in my gut constrict and my chest weighed a tonne. The people kept coming and then he asked then to come forward and pray together. I stood transfixed, afraid and embarrased to move, to be seen as flawed, weak, in pain......

"Bretheren in the congregation, come foward and hold the ones standing at the front"

I would have missed his summons if my sister hadn't dragged me foward. What was I supposed to tell these aching hearts? Jesus loves you and it will all be ok? He kept repeating the demand that we should forgive in order to set ourselves free. Forgive, forgive, forgive... I looked at the person standing next to me and held her without thinking. I felt her body shudder in an attempt to fight the emotion even before I felt her tears soaking my shirt. She clung to me like I was her life line, hoping to tap into some strength, perhaps. We stood there painting an odd picture of strangers in embrace and yet our hearts were strangely in tune... I don't know how long it took but the raging storms finally calmed and we let do as if only then did we recall that we were strangers. I turned to walk away and like the whispering of the sighing wind, I heard the words "God bless you" and that was enough.