He Loves Her

All seven of us were waiting for our bus to come.
Unfortunately we had just missed it so I decided to rest my back on a
nearby post. Others followed me and as we chatted Elizabeth noticed
that I was leaning against a very scary looking man with one weird eye
ball. The man was Marilyn Manson and I was leaning on his concert
poster. He became the topic of our conversation and when we realized
that the concert was the next day I exclaimed, “Hey, lets go there!”

We pondered in prayer for a good while before we came to a
unanimous decision. It was a go. As we each shared our hearts about
what we felt God prompting us to do it was clear that we were to plant
seeds of reconciliation. When Manson was young he was shunned by the
church due to his awkwardness, likewise his followers often have fallen
victim to the same treatment. His platform is publicly founded on
satanism and easily draws outcasts. In one of his latest interviews he
told his fans that if they feel like committing suicide, to just do it.

We prepared ourselves spiritually the best way we knew how.
I decided to dress myself in black leggings with a black skirt and
shirt to match; then I covered my eyes in the color of death. My goal
was not to mock, but to accept.

On the bus on the way there Emily, Elizabeth, Ian and I were
looked up and down. These “children of the light” had a taste of the
judgment that some of these people get every time they go out in
public. It didn’t feel good. We got to the concert, decided to split
two by two and dive right in. Liz and Em made there way to a girl
standing by herself and Ian and I went for a walk to build up more
courage and try to find the person we were supposed to talk to. We
finally found a crowded area where we sat and people watched as we
prayed about who to approach. We had a tough time because every time we
picked somebody out and made the approach they would slowly turn on
their heels and start walking away. The freaky thing about this is that
it happened SEVERAL times and they all turned in a very distinct way.
We didn’t really know what to do so we decided to go for another walk.
As we did we passed the girls ministering to a girl with big sunglasses
on. Her name was Lucy, a beautiful girl with painted pink stripes in
her hair and a large gap between her teeth. Our team concurs that she
is the reason why God sent us there.

Em and Liz were upfront when Lucy asked why they were at the
concert. Liz confidently said, “Well, we feel like God told us to come,
and then He told us to come over here and tell you that He loves you.”
Lucy giggled in surprise. Had anyone every told her this before, it
seemed not. Interested in what they were saying, their conversation
continued. Once finding out that they were Christian missionaries she
apologetically informed them that they were at the wrong concert.
“Marilyn Manson is against everything that you believe.” The girls told
her that it was okay and that it didn’t matter. Lucy upside down cross
that she wore on her neck sparked a conversation about her beliefs and
she told them that she was an Athiest. The girls asked her about her
church experience and she told them that she had only gone to a church
a few times when she was younger, but it was too rigid and there were
too many rules.

As they talked Liz felt prompted to tell Lucy that God
thought she was beautiful, and when she did Lucy burst out into more
childlike giggles. It was as if the word beautiful was foreign to her.
She boldly asked why they thought this and Liz sincerely gave her the
truth. She spoke of natural things and shared Psalm 139 with her. And
for the first time in Lucy’s life, someone bothered to paint a whole
new picture of God for her. She was introduced to a God who accepts,
befriends, delights in, who is in the habit of giving too much mercy,
and too much grace. A God who can look at a girl who has rejected him
because she was rejected and send four Americans across the world to go
find her.

Liz asked Lucy to take her sunglasses off of her face. As
she did so her amber-colored eyes radiated through the black painted
circles surrounding them. The girl’s reaction was only priceless
because it was real. They flamboyantly doted over how stunningly
gorgeous they were. In fact, days later when the girls talked about her
unveiling her eyes their sincere reaction still gave me goosebumps. I
don’t think that Lucy was ever given such a response in her life.
Shortly after this the girls said their goodbyes and Lucy went into the
concert hall.

When we all gathered back together I felt God’s delight resting on me like two love birds on their 50^th
wedding anniversary. As the girls shared their story I remembered the
first time that I was told that God loved me, and the several years
after when that precious seed took root and I finally understood how
magnificent that statement was.

Before going to the concert I sent out a prayer request to
over 100 people. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew we
needed support. As I look at the whole picture of what happened I am in
awe of the height and depth of His love. Do me a favor and try to wrap
your mind around this:

For one girl, who had blatantly denied him, blasphemed him, and worshiped his enemy…

Then he took his fingers and smushed us together–all so
that she could hear these words, “I love you.” And because he is
patient, because his love endures, he will watch over the seed that he
planted and will see to it that it comes into fruition. All this
trouble for one girl who hates him.