The words on the piece of cardboard were in Arabic. The words told the story of redemption, of how far God brings his children. One side was the before, the back side was the after.
After meeting God. After trusting completely in him.
The front of the piece of cardboard said “suicidal.” The back said “Living in God’s grace.”
Each member of Teams Chrysalis and Olur made one, we’d also encouraged the youth to do the same.
This one stood out, though.
I don’t know Arabic, but even the letters of the word “suicidal” seemed harsh. The word didn’t seem as pretty as the rest of them. The shapes seemed sharp and jagged, not rounded and smooth like the others.
As Ken and Shannon sang as we all walked up one by one, we’d show the first side then we’d flip it to the next, sharing our stories of freedom. Our stories of grace. Our stories of love.
“I found my identity in man” turned into “I found my identity in the Son of Man.”
“Felt unloved” turned into “Beloved.”
“Life of the party” turned into “Bringing life to the nations.”
The song played on. The words “You have redeemed my soul from the pit of emptiness, you have redeemed my soul from death” rang out.
When we’d all gone through, each of us stood in front of the church, smiling and singing, “Oh how he loves us,” over and over.
I was overwhelmed and fought tears as I looked at the group. All of us had a story, we’d all been freed from something, we’d all been loved by someONE–Jesus. And we sang out to him, praising him for what he’d done as the church looked on.
As I looked around, the words “Living in grace” continued to stick out to me. I took a deep breath, looked up and praised God for this story in particular.
I thanked him for my story.
