Seven Places
By: WritingforJesus14
3/29/06

I looked around at the total darkness. I was kneeling with a soft light glowing down on me, nothing else visible outside of that range. My white dress was bloody and ripped, the wounds underneath still fresh. My long, black hair was matted and gross, my blue eyes numbly dull with the pain of my past and present. I moved my gaze to my hands; the hands which had done the most horribly unthinkable things. Blood was dripping down from my wrists that were bound with thick, metal shackles, the endless chain disappearing out of sight into the pitch black. Each chain represented the wrongs I committed; some of them from the past, some from the present. The thick cuffs that bound my wrists stood for the sin that bound me to the possible wrongs that could happen and that have.

I put my hand to my chest, feeling the faint “thump” of my heart; a heart so scarred and bruised, it barely felt anything anymore. So much horrible had happened to it, it was almost stopping from the pain; the only thing it felt anymore.

Raising my hand, I touched the top of my head…a head filled with lies and the thoughts of those who betrayed me. A head filled with evil thoughts of others; hate for others.

I shivered and thought about how many times I had turned my back to those others…to the ones I loved and cared about and who had needed me most. I thought about the feet that had carried me away from the only friends I had known. I thought about the horrible places they had carried me; the horrible places I had brought them to.

I dropped my shackled hand to my lap. Where was God in all of my pain? My hurt? Where was He when I needed Him most? I dropped my head.

“God? Where are You now?”

In the times I needed Him most, He seemed not to care; not to listen to my cries of pain and desperation.

A soft whisper sounded in the darkness, but I didn’t pay attention, only closed my eyes and watched as the past’s memories replayed in my mind.

-:-0-:-

A father beating a child…a bloody mother lying dead on the ground…a young, frightened, little girl in the corner, legs hugged against her chest, eyes pooling silent tears on the ground around her as she watched her older brother being beaten…the little girl watched, wide-eyed as her older brother took the blame for her; for the cookies she didn’t eat.

-:-0-:-

I flung my eyes open, tears falling like acid rain against the ground. So alone.

“God? Where were You when my mother died? Why would you forget us?”

I heard someone faintly…calling…but I pushed it away. I was probably hearing my mothers endless cries from the dark past, or my fathers angry shouts while he held his fist tight; mercilessly bringing it down, down; harder and angrier every time.

I thought back to when I lost my virginity. It had felt so right; he said he had loved me…had. I thought about the tears I cried when I found out I wasn’t his only ‘love’.

“God? Why didn’t you warn me?”

“You never listened.”

I jumped. It was the same whisper and faint call that I had heard before. It was louder now, catching my attention.

“I did listen,” I called to the darkness, “but never heard anything in return. My prayers were never answered, my pain always forgotten.”

“My dear child,” He said tenderly; lovingly, “You were trying too hard. All these years, you’ve tried to listen to all the voices you wanted to hear, while I called quietly in the back of your mind; waiting for you to listen…to answer.”

“I was scared You wouldn’t forgive me. I have committed so many wrongs, gone so many places that even the Devil would fear.”

“My feet were pierced. You are cleansed.”

“But I have thought horrible things about people; thought of plans to hurt them. I preformed those plans with my bare hands, not letting anyone else do it for me.”

“My brow held thorns; each of my hands were pierced. You are cleansed.”

Instantly, the shackles that bound me unlocked and dropped unto the ground.

“But, Lord, I’ve turned my back to the ones I loved; to You…turning bitter toward them; hating them with my gut.”

“My back was beaten, my side pierced with a spear…these seven places I have bled for you, so that you could be free from those chains. Go now, and be cleansed. You are bound no more.”

The light above me became wider, chasing away the darkness and revealing a flowered meadow. Not far away, I saw a hill with three crosses on top. In the middle cross, I saw a man, looking to the sky with pain and agony. He cried out with a tattered voice:

“It is…finished.”

Lightning split the sky and the thunder rolled. Instantly, my whole body was illuminated in light. I looked down. My wrists, where the shackles had dug marks into my flesh, were cleansed from blood. My dress became white and unmarked again and my hair smooth and silky. But most of all, my heart became whole again, and filled with love; joy; peace; patience; kindness; goodness and…oneness. I was whole.

-:-0-:-

A/N:Ok, I hope everyone liked this and it made sense. Heh, I was surprised at how dramatic it was! I don’t usually write dramatic, but this one came out pretty good. Thanks be to God who put the words into my mind…I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone! (reviews are very much appreciated)