My God Restores
This guest post comes from Neesha Hammercord, a newlywed who enjoys camping, hiking, mission trips, and whose step-daughter has taught her to slow down and just enjoy time.
As I ponder the time spent on my recent deployment with my Crisis Response International family, I am blessed in knowing God is supreme and still reigns mightily on His thrown.
Let’s go back quite a few years during high school. I was a hurting girl and took it out on other girls in the aspect of physical and emotional abuse. Today you’d call me a bully. As days went by, pain of feeling unwanted deepened as anger became my identity.
If I was looked at in even the slightest wrong way it was you and me toe to toe at lunch time. I was suspended many times over, talked to by authorities, and threatened to be put on probation. I say this to say “My God Restores.”
For a few months He has placed one specific girl on my heart. I couldn’t find her on Facebook and honestly had no idea where she was. Yet the pain I caused her became ever more present. I could see her face as I blinked and the fear that beset her. She was just as broken as me.
As the Camp Fire erupted in Paradise, California my husband was then called to fight it. News begin to flood in on how bad it was. Then I got an email from CRI. They needed crisis and disaster responders. Holy Spirit gripped me. I felt an intense need to go. I prayed and then asked my husband. He soon said yes.
I get my gear ready and not exactly sure what to expect, I head down to Chico, California. I get to where we were serving and shortly was called to the prayer tent. I was briefed and went it. There I met my amazing prayer partner Cindi. We heard many heart wrenching stories and many tears were shed. (I have since adopted her as my spiritual mama.)
As I’m getting ready to engage another person, I see a head pop in the front of the tent and our eyes lock. It is the girl the Lord has been laying on my heart for the past few months. Stunned, I ask her her name. Jenny, she says. Holding back tears I ask if I may speak with her and she begins to cry. I look her in the eyes and ask her to forgive me for all the hell I put her through. She nods and simply says “I’ve been waiting for this moment. I forgive you.”
Not exactly sure what just happened, I tried to process it, but had to quickly get back into the tent. She came back a short time later to let me know she had found her keys, and we embraced once again before she left.
If that was the only reason I felt the Holy Spirit’s tug, I’d say again, without a doubt, that there is a God and in Him is found unconditional love.
May God’s grace be upon you and if He is leading you to be reconciled to someone, let Him lead the way
