Love Stolen, Heart Restored
Love Stolen, Heart Restored
Not having or feeling the love of a parent as a child, nurtures the greatest pains anyone can endure in this life. That trauma inflicted on an innocent soul unprepared to deal with it and unable to counteract it, forces that child to embrace one of the three instinctive routes of a soul afraid to perish: the fight, flight, or freeze. Some choose to fight for that love even to the death if needed. Others run far away from it and hide into a corner of their heart where the wall is so tall, only a giant would be able to scale it. Yet, others remain in a frozen state of shock, rehearsing what happened either periodically when triggered or constantly as a chronic condition of consciousness they believe they’ll never be able to escape from.
The fatal blow of lovelessness inflicted on a child’s heart stifles their potential to thrive and most remain in that arrested development stage of failure to thrive. The inability or unwillingness of that parent to pour out their affection on that child, declaring to heaven and earth: “This is my child in whom I am well pleased” leads to the temptation of dire need for love. No matter what that child will have to do to turn those stones into bread, even if it takes to jump off the clip and fall in love over and over again, or if the kingdoms and riches of this world are what it takes to get to love, nothing will stop them. We were not created to be separated from love. The eternity written in our hearts is spelled L.O.V.E.
The absence of even a drop of love in the ocean of our hearts skews our entire being. It influences our ability to receive or to give away any part of ourselves for fear it is a deadly trap. It changes the way we look at people, accept, receive, or embrace them. It transforms our person into a creature whose native language is fear rather than faith. It strips us from the tongue of angels and teaches us demonic utterances leading us to express love only ears that could hear would understand the difference.
Being raised with no vision of love forces a child to put on the binocular of uncalibrated and easily frazzled emotions through which they view, examine, judge, and decide on everything, event, and person. A child who grows up feeling deprived of the love of a father would’ve been deprived of identity, of knowledge of self. Furthermore, their outlook of God as our heavenly Father would have been painted in a horrible way from the inception. Worse, a child deprived of the love of a mother has been brutally ripped away from the natural affection which is a default setting for humanity.
All this lack boils to the thief who came to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Surely, the greatest act of robbery, the one God hates the most, is that of a child deprived of their heritage of love. By taking away that motherly love, confidence was intentionally stolen, so that child would have no fight back against any other assault later inflicted. It is not just a robbery, but the systematic murder of peace and reassurance that all evils will eventually turn out for good once mutual love is established and affection is reciprocated. The devil ensures he destroyed any remnant love needed for psychological growth, emotional maturity, mental prosperity, and spiritual thriving. He may have taken years of our lives, but not our divine purpose. He stole much, but not the breath needed to become fruitful, multiply, subdue, fill the earth, and have dominion. Kingdom stolen even before nobility has an opportunity to be nurtured in us. But the King has come to restore the kingdom and reveal to us what it is like and how to enter it.
Yes, the devil is manipulative, well calculated, intentional, and even the craftiest of all, but what he could never be is victorious. He too had a completely arrested development. He took is forced to make these stones become bread, to continually fall down that hill, and one day he will find himself bowing before the King and judged by those he robbed. He may be visionary, but he doesn’t account for redemption, had no knowledge of restoration, and could not even imagine transformation. He breathes threats of death and destruction, but the Spirit of God breathes life and restoration.
It may be unconceivable, but the greater the pain, the sweeter the triumph. That is the miracle of victory over evil forces we had no other means of resisting and conquering. Yes, a victim turned into more than a conqueror. Who would have thought? But thinking does not create our reality, nor do our emotions shape it, but God does. From childhood, our grieving soul called out to the God of salvation, but in adulthood, we can understand He came to reveal our complete restoration. He is the Alpha and Omega, so our fall from the beginning only means our rise in the end.
What a day when favor is ours as we devote our hearts to Him and stretch out our hands to our Redeemer (Job 11:13). When we put away our sin, allow no evil to dwell among us, free of fault, standing firm and without fear (Job 11:25-15). Surely, we forget our troubles and recall it only as waters gone by (Job 11:16). And, what a day when our lives are brighter than noonday and darkness becomes like morning, when we are secure because of hope and are surrounded by safety when we look all around (Job 11:17-18).
To know this day is today gives me great comfort. It tells us that truly the end of my walking in the valley of the shadow of lovelessness concluded with a feast even in the wilderness. It recounts the story of a cup once empty, now overflowing with goodness and mercy, with the wine of the Holy Spirit. In the loving arms of our Shepherd, we can finally lie on the greenest pastures and drink from the most refreshing waters, we can have a restored soul. We can be blessed by the Source that will never run dry. Poetic justice, some say, but divine blessing is what it truly is.
This is the day when the Lord of hosts issues His public recognition and openly declares us His jewels, “They shall be Mine!” (Malachi 3:7). Yes, of all the people on earth, the Lord our God has chosen us to be His own special treasure (Deuteronomy 7:6). Was it not because He loves justice and hates robbery and the crime committed against our poor souls? Now He has clothed us with His garments of salvation and draped us with a robe of His righteousness as a groom with his priestly turban on his wedding day and a bride adorned with her jewels (Isaiah 61:10). The bride waited long for her bridegroom, now her joy is complete as He has arrived and taken us into His arms to have and to hold, to love and cherish for eternity.
Let It Be So!
