I met someone new;
An intriguing acquaintance, now mine.
A voice that rang bells. Eyes like ghosts.
And a door opened.
-
Lips as red as the bleeding heart on her sleeve.
It didn't take long to notice,
She was a cocktail of emotion.
She moved through life like a bullet.
-
A name settled on the tip of my tongue,
Unbeknownst to my mind.
Recognition, but no placement.
She remained a mystery.
-
We struck up conversation
Like one strikes a match.
Words passed.
Time didn't.
-
I knew her face so well,
Yet identity still escaped me.
-
Something happened.
Movement caught my eye.
She adjusted her glasses, and there it was.
The quirk gave it away.
-
Me.
-
How could that be?
This reflection wore my face,
But not my flaws.
She was...more.
-
There was passion in her presence.
I looked at her shoulders.
The usual weariness was gone.
I was breathless.
-
I barely recognized her
Without the boulder on her chest.
Where was the inhibition
that lived behind her teeth?
-
She loved like the first breath
And gave like the last.
She looked at hurdles with narrowed eyes
And jumped.
-
She glided past rejection.
She broke.
She let go.
And then shared her heart anyway.
-
She was green tea and ginger;
Adding warmth and spice to life.
She was a novel from 1945;
Old fashioned, with scribbled thoughts on every page.
-
She was the desk in her room,
As shamelessly messy as her mind.
She was unshaken, creative,
Knowing, undefeated.
-
She learned from the past,
Laughed in the present,
and faced the future with anticipation.
All three were friends to her.
-
My soul wept at the sight of her.
Father, will I ever get there?
I asked.
I want to be who she is.
-
I wanted the restfulness in her eyes.
I wanted the contagious joy in her posture.
I wanted to trust no matter what.
I wanted to step out on the sea and believe I could stand.
-
Lord, when will I be her?
-
The answer came,
Whispered.
Waves of tenderness
Crashed on the shore of my soul.
-
You are.
-
Just two words,
And all I could do was breathe.
My lips fell open.
My eyes fell closed.
-
That answer was impossible,
Yet, somehow, believable.
The Creator said it.
It must be so.
-
My heart and brain sped.
The previously new acquaintance vanished.
It was just me.
But not really.
-
There was also Him. The voice's keeper.
Unshaken, creative,
Knowing, undefeated.
Him.
-
And He was the reason
I found those two words so believable.
In His death I gained life.
In His brokenness I was made whole.
-
The rest was history.
My existence defined in two words.
Made with a purpose, unstoppable,
Even by my own shortcomings.
-
The inheritance of royalty
Given to a beggar on the street.
How great the Father's love for us!
How vast beyond all measure!
-
That was the first day God introduced me
To myself.
And ever since I've been discovering
The me that I am.
(Photo Credit: Natalya Bartelt)
