Shedding the Shadow

“He pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live…’ Jesus went with him… He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha koum!’ (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around…” Mark 5:23-24, 41-42

There are few things more frightening than watching the demons of addiction invade, lure, demand and destroy in the heart and mind of a person. I’ve known and loved amazing people who have walked and are still walking this journey. I read something haunting that my daughter posted about addiction. ‘It is a stone wall that stands to keep you in and the rest out. It is a shadow that always lurks behind you, waiting to strike.’ If you have never been up close and personal to this disease one might be tempted to judge. When one judges those suffering souls, they are judging nothing more than a shadow…an empty version of a person…one who needs relief from the demons within. Its hard to understand who breaks through that stone wall, and who is broken by it.

Yesterday Jesus took a wearied beautiful soul, placed His healing hands on her body, took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’ As she closed her eyes to this broken dark world, she opened her eyes to her new home. A home where demons don’t lurk…a home where she immediately was healthy and whole…a home where there is only Light...a home where stone walls have been replaced with beautiful open gates. At the sound of His voice no doubt she felt more alive than ever in this life. She is now free to dance in the fields of grace and will never again look over her shoulder to determine where the shadow is hiding. She is walking around the beautiful gardens discovering truth over lies and realizing once and for all who she was created to be. While our hearts are broken, her heart has been set free. And while we taste the bitter fare of grief, she is tasting the feast of Heaven. She was instrumental in taking others by the hand at the beginning of their lives of sobriety, and now she has been taken by the hand of the Ultimate Healer.

Join me in lifting this family up, along with those blessed people that her life touched along her journey Home.

"Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength." 1 Co 15:43