Thank You for listening past the ugliness.
Thank You for hearing “me” inside.
Thank You for hearing how hard I am really screaming,
for hearing the cry that has to release sometimes
to survive the silence that protects me.
Thank You for Your selfless act of mercy
in Your patience, longsuffering, forgiveness, tolerance,
and most of all Your continued presence…
Your faithful presence,
Your unmatchable love for me.
Why do You love me so? At all?
I know You gave Your Son for me (I love Jesus).
I know I am Your creation.
I know I am made in Your image.
But why do You not destroy me as You did Sodom and Gomorrah?
Why did You not cast me out like You did Adam and Eve from the garden?
Why am I not a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife as much as I STILL look back?
Why am I not nameless as much as I shame Your name?
Why am I allowed to be called Holy when You had to drag me out of the gutter,
the One who is most victimized by my self loathing?
The name that is most glorious saved that which is most vile.
You are pure and righteous, God,
and yet You still knelt to pick me up off the ground,
off of the very dirt from which You made me,
and that I have wallered in.
How did You even recognize me under all that filth?
How could You possibly see any beauty?
Why did You even allow Your pure and innocent hands to touch mine?
Why did You bother to reach out to me?
Because that is everything about who You are.
I may never fully understand the depths of Your love,
and I may never grasp the smallest part of Your wisdom,
but I will always be grateful for the breath You have breathed into my life.
I will always be in debt to You from all that You have saved me from,
and continue to save me from.
I will continue to fall in love with You more and more every day
for being willing to look through the muck and see me!
And rescue me!
Thank You that You see me despite the filth,
that You hear me despite the ugly,
and love me despite the human in me.
Thank You for Your saving grace,
for transforming me by the renewing of my mind,
for making me a new creature.
Behold You make all things and people new,
including me.
I am a new thing! ❤
I have been cleansed, redeemed, and made Holy,
adopted… into an omnipresent family.
I am led by Your omniscience,
and protected by Your omnipotence.
I am definitely a new creature.
Only You could take vile and evil,
and mold the imperfect clay into Your Holy image.
Only You could make me righteous.
Only You could see me as a child to grow in Your nourishing word.
Only You could tame the untamable.
Only You complete the work You begin in me.
Only You.
And that is what it’s all about… You and You only.
What You do in me is Your doing.
Your testimony.
I love You all the more.

7-16-17 Devotional Poem
written by Gail Brookshire