(This is for my precious friend who has known and is knowing great pain.  Jesus gets it.  And He loves you more than you will ever fully understand.  And I love you, too.  We’re both right here…)

You put your brave face on

Wipe your tears off with your shirt

Pretend that you are all right

Pretend it doesn’t hurt.

But I can see the bruises

I can see your pain

The scars that go beyond your skin

Where words have left their stain.

Your heart has taken beatings

No one was meant to bear

Your soul has known the darkness

Of hopelessness, despair.

Can you hear my gentle whisper

Past the sound of angry words?

Can you see my loving hands

Past the hands that have brought hurt?

Can you feel my careful touch

Past the careless, thoughtless acts?

Can you taste some of my goodness

Past the bitter, ugly facts?

Though you’ve been abandoned

I’ll never leave your side

Though you’ve been badly wronged

I’ll only do you right.

It’s me who wipes your tears

When you think nobody cares

‘Cuz I’m the One who loves you

Who’ll always be right there.

I know the pain of angry words

The weight of others’ sins

I’ve been beaten, bloodied, bruised

And watched the bad guys win.

But when I hung upon that tree

It’s you that I thought of

As I took the thorns, the nails, the cross

My heart broke too, with love.

Evil will not get last word

I took away its spell

I rose again to conquer it

And send it back to hell.

Come away with me, my precious child

Let me soothe your weary heart

And tend the wounds your soul has known

I’ll heal every part.

And you will know a love so true

That you only dreamed could be

In my arms so safe, secure

You’re everything to me….

Ephesians 3:17-19 – And I pray that you… may…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.