The First Gift

   The Beginning. Number One. My Alpha:  Thankful does not come close. How can you describe in words what it is to be a fatherless child who suddenly discovers the everlasting love of the Father, the One who will never leave or forsake her; the one who has always and endlessly loved the little girl now all grown up and getting old on the outside, but who can shift on a dime to become once again that eight-year-old child who is still listening at the door for the sound of a voice and the fall of a step that will not be heard again this side of heaven.
   Through the years the hole in her has deepened and widened until it reached the point where it began to define her. She carefully maintained a facade, but the hole was there like the Grand Canyon. It would not go away. She couldn't fix it.
   It is the grief from which she had run. The grief from which she had hidden away her true self. It was only when her ever-seeping wounds begin to affect those around her that she was willing to examine these wounds and to begin to admit their existence. To be willing to turn from the darkness of self-protection toward the light. To risk exposure, if it carried the distant hope of healing. Redemption seemed to be too much to ask.
    And then He comes. Emmanuel. The Wounded Healer himself. The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. He has borne it all: the sin, the misery, the grief, the pain, the separation, the devastation, the desperation. And He has made peace for one and for all.
    And for that little girl now all grown up and getting old on the outside it is the miracle that she needs. He is here. He always was here. He always will be here. He is More than Enough.
     He is the Way of Peace for her. He is the Redeemer. It is the turning in and turning out of all things. In Him all things hold together. In Him she is held together. By gentle loving faithful hands. The tender embrace of a Father as He cups her face and whispers once again of His great great love for her, His daughter.
     And He is...in the beginning and the end...all she ever really needs. He is her Salvation.