Resident Reflection: The Roses That Never Died

shared with permission…

Alone with the creaking of rusty chains, a girl swings.
Head bowed, eyes downcast, one foot slowly pushes back and forth.
The silence creeps in and starts to weight down on her heavy heart.
Bitter tears flood the girl’s pale face.
Afraid of the world she built, the one of regret and dpression,
She’s come to find that she no longer knows how to carry on.

A coward’s choice could be her biggest achievement in life.

All it takes is one slight motion and an explosion to the ends of the earth.
The gun is cold and heavy in her hand as she presses it to the side of her face.
Suddenly the girls finds that she is no longer alone.
She feels the presence of someone behind her.
Startled, the girl turns to see a man with gentle eyes and a sad smile.
She starts to back away but the man hold out his hands to her and the sight of them stops her.
On each of his wrists is a circular scar,
Almost as if something had been driven through there.
The man quietly takes the gun from her and throws it behind him.

“Come to me, my child, and you shall have a changed life.
Never again will you feel unloved, for I shall always be with you
Confess and ask forgiveness for your past, and it will be forgotten.
For I died to save you from yourself and the sin of this world.
Come to me and be changed into something beautiful.”

With tears streaming down her face, the young girls chooses life in the arms of her Savior, Jesus Christ

Jocelyn Wallace
Jocelyn was the executive director of the Vision of Hope residential treatment center (www.vohlafayette.org) on the campus of Faith Ministries until 2013. Her experience in the biblical counseling field goes back to 2002, and includes work in parachurch organizations and Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries.