there is this song...

There is this song that is constantly playing on the Christian music station that I listen to here in Chattanooga...it is basically the only station I have found worth listening to, although they do play too many commercials for my liking. (I just want music...give me the Jesus music!!) Anyway, this song has a chorus that ends with "Child, you're forgiven and loved." - I don't know who sings it or what it is called but it has so struck a chord (no pun, sorry.) with me the last few times I have heard it that my eyes get so blurry I almost have to pull over.
Child...that's me, a child of a very alive and living God. A God that is full of grace and mercy and beauty on the bad days.
You're forgiven...how simple. I am human, thus I sin. I hurt people who love me, I hurt people who don't love me, I am selfish, hard-hearted, and fuzzy-minded - and that's all on my good days. Come on..we all are. But guess what...I'm forgiven. Wow...
And child, you are loved. Me. God loves me. Other people love me (even those people that I constantly hurt and take for granted...they still love me.) I am loved. It doesn't get any better than that. Love is the only thing in the world that heals hurts. Love is the only thing that will create world peace and convince nations to lay down their arms...turning their swords into shovels, to plant and create a better world for us all to live in.
Child, You are forgiven and Child, you are loved.

There is this younger guy at work who shared a little part of his life with me yesterday and basically broke my heart in two. His story, one of pain, hurts, and generational curses, is so unfamiliar to me - I am so blessed.
He is the reason I am at Hobby Lobby.
It took a year of me wondering and knowing that God's plan was bigger and deeper than my plan.
But he is the reason. Being his friend, sharing my life and my family with him, basically loving on him (in the God-sense) is the whole reason I am there. I know it might sound "hokey" (my mom's word, love it.) but I truly feel like the past 24-hours I have spent in desperate prayer for him is the entire reason that I work there. So, no, my time there isn't up yet. I think I understand so much better now. I can see clearly now...I know I have been vague but I don't think it is appropriate here to tell his story but please, please be in prayer for him. Pray that the strongholds in his life will be broken and He will be able to see how much HE is a child who is forgiven and loved.