Being Part of Someonelse's Story

In the front of her journal she wrote,"God takes the garbage of our lives and makes it into the compost from which to grow others." -unknown-

My friend carried around the weight of so much garbage. She had always felt unwanted. Maybe that's because her mother had told her she was an accident and that her birth had ruined her life. Maybe she felt that way because when she was twelve her mother had sent her off to live with her mentally ill, abusive father with a note that said, "I don't want her anymore. It's your turn to deal with her."

If often happens when a child is thrust out into the world feeling unloved and unwanted that they make choices that others who have known the tender love of a family would never think to make and so it was with my friend.

When my husband and I first began our home we took to heart the words from Psalm 68:6 "God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy." We asked God to use the family He was giving us to be a family where He could place the lonely. That is how Loraine became Aunt Loraine to my family.

Loraine came to a Bible Study I was teaching. She had already become a Christian when I met her but still she suffered with the garbage of her past. She also suffered from trust issues because she had been abandoned and abused as child by those who should have protected her.

One day when Loraine was in my home she asked if she could talk to me. We sat together on a swing in my backyard and she began to tell me things that had plagued her, things she believed that if anyone knew about them she would be forever driven away. As I listened to her I felt like I heard the Holy Spirit telling me to wash her feet. I thought this was odd but the idea would not go away so that evening I knelt before her and washed her feet.

After Loraine died I found her journal. I could hear her voice as I read,"Who am I. who is Loraine, without family identity--who am I? What can come of this quest for healing? Is healing really possible for someone questioning the power that heals? Oh God, I don't know what to believe."  But something happened on June 28th I obeyed an odd urging from God's Spirit and I washed my friends feet.

June 28th Amazing things happened to me today. This afternoon Sarah and I sat in the swing talking and sharing and I shared, risking our friendship(in my mind) I felt dirty and awful, and shamed but I needed to have someone close, besides my therapist, that I could say these things to and not be rejected by them. Sarah listened, comforted and shared some things of her own. I cried and then we went on with our activity. Later she said there was something she wanted to do after everyone went to bed. After supper I asked her what it was she said, "In response to what you told me, I'm going to wash your feet." I was flabbergasted, totally, and then so touched  I began to cry. It was an act of love I have never experienced before and I was totally humbled by the experience-- there on her knees my dear sweet friend, washed my feet. It was an experience I will never forget. It reached in and crumbled a wall of distrust I never expected to end in this life. I went to bed in tears and awed by such an act. But God blessed it because I saw a person loving me, honoring me, caring as no one ever had. It softened my resistance and broke my heart toward God. I went to bed praying praising and thanking God." 

Heavenly Father, thank You for letting me be part of another person's story. Thank You for placing the lonely in families. Thank You for setting prisoners of guilt and shame free to experience joy. And thank You for being a Redeemer who takes the garbage of our lives and for using it as compost from which to grow others.