LYNN’S LOVE STORY
As a child, Lynn went to bed hungry for love, starving to be cared for. The smell of the stockyards and her mother’s disregard clung to her like the filth that overflowed from the kitchen sink and her father’s drunk eyes.
She would wake early each day before school to scrub and cover the shame of it all. For even in the impoverished projects of Chicago, it was humiliating to grow up without love.
For years, a little girl would hold up treasures to a woman’s vacant stares, trying to coax a smile, but nothing she brought could please her, fix her, or make her see.
Then one day, in a rare show of mercy, the man she called “Dad” handed her a ticket with a few meager belongings and sent her off to join the army. As the bus pulled away from the life she knew, she looked back in vain for her mother’s farewell, then turned her gaze forward.
That was the beginning of a journey back to the hope she had left behind.
At a small church on the corner, she was welcomed with open arms into the family of God.
At a noisy, local bar, her shy smile caught the eye of a red-haired soldier boy who adored her until her dying day.
And on Mother’s Day, in the spring of wedded bliss, she unwrapped the gift of a daughter, a chance to redeem all she had lost.
Lynn strived to be the mommy she never knew but would often retreat into the darkness, a cool washcloth over her eyes, exhausted from the effort to try to change her past.
When the pain dulled, she would sit for hours, pouring over her Bible, copying the words onto note cards, trying to imprint forgiveness onto her heart.
This was Lynn's practice until the time came to sit by her dying mother’s side and offer to her the same love she had found.
“Mom, I know you love Jesus.”
Her mother’s eyes and heart met her daughter’s for the very first time as she confessed, "I love Him, but I don’t know if He loves me.”
Every wall between them came down when Lynn replied, “Oh yes, Mom. Jesus loves you. He really does.”
“The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out.” John 1:5 CEV
Note: Lynn and her mother are now together forever with Jesus, making up for lost time.