To the victim.... To the perpetrator... I weep.... Today I weep...

There is so much upon my heart.

A couple big things going on.

My heart aches today.  My heart began to think of the police officer killed today during the chase in Boston.  My heart thought of the families who are enduring great sorrow as the hours and days slip by and tick away.

Lives that will never be the same.

Then.......

Then the Lord brought to remembrance a passion of mine.  And I burst into praying as my heart filled with His compassion and His grace.

Years ago He began to woo my heart towards restoration.  But of course you would think... And think rightly!

Except it wasn't primarily towards those that had been harmed.  It wasn't  solely towards those whose lives had been torn apart by neglect, abuse, trauma..  

It was those who had perpetrated upon them, that the Lord awoken my heart towards.  He asked my eyes to see, he beckoned my heart to know...

He didn't start with the vague stranger either.  He began with a group of men who had physically and sexually brought me great harm.

In the most compassionate voice I had ever heard,  He began to show me pictures of their faces.

He began to speak of His great love for them.

In the most poignant of moments, God and I wept on behalf of the broken.

I knew His heart wasn't legitimizing any of the actions, I knew He was beyond grieved for what had transpired in and upon my life.  But they were His sons too.  Not ever forgotten or far from His heart.

I dreamed of the day when I would stand in a conference and speak into and over those through which harm had flowed through.   It happened a couple of years ago and there wasn't a dry eye in the place.  As words poured forth out of my mouth, as words that found their origin within the heart of God found expression.

As forgiveness and grace and mercy saturated the room.

In moments of great harm, I believe it is human instinct to want someone to blame, to make someone pay, to enact justice.   The moment when justice was paid for all... Those who would cast stones and those who would be stoned happened.   It birthed a whole new perspective.   When an innocent send blood for the guilty.

The guilty... That is how we all stood before Him.  Not good, not righteous, not anything but guilty.

So to those who would be stoned,  to those who would cast the stones... To those who have been harmed, lied to, stolen from, betrayed, rejected, broken and to those who enacted all of the above grace abounds,  healing abounds,  love and forgiveness abound.  

There is a lens through which we can view all  that   which happens and I want those eyes more and more,  I want that heart more and more...  I want Him for all more and more...