I’m reposting a post from the beginning of June, on the feasts of the Two Hearts, about the three young kidnapped women who were found in Cleveland. They have just released a video thanking everyone for their support. How beautiful and moving to see them! And when I heard the testimony of Michelle Knight (the last one to speak) so much of it really touched me and I heard echoes, so here is the re-post and the video. I hope you find inspiration in it, and confidence against any doubts that God has a plan for each of us.
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Last month in Cleveland, Ohio three young women were found in a house after spending last 10 years as captives, kidnapped by a man in their neighborhood. These three young women suffered terrible abuse, and had only left the house 2 times in their 10 years When the police found them, they got a big hug, and then they took the women in their car to the hospital.
I’m imagining what that might be like. Walking under the sun for the first time in 10 years. Feeling the cool rain on your face, feeling a fresh breeze, smelling flowers, for the first time in 10 years. Taking money out of your own pocket and paying for something that you picked out, for the first time in 10 years. Coming home, seeing family and friends, looking into their eyes, seeings their faces and hearing their voices, putting your arms around them, for the first time in 10 years. It’s like living life all over again, from the beginning, brand new. Like being born again.
You know, I think these young women are going to do something great. I think that after this experience, they are going to want others to experience the same thing. They are going to want to give that same experience to everyone who is captive and trapped like they were, and they’ll even go into those dark places to do it – nothing will stop them.
God has a plan for each of our lives, and it includes doing great things. He wants to give us a clear purpose and mission, one that no one will stop us from doing, one that will come from inside our own heart, that will bring us to life again. If we let Him inspire it.
If we let Him find us.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on fat pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.” (Ez 34:11-16)
ALM 