I lay awake tonight in the darkness with
salty tears rolling across the bridge of my
nose and dropping to my pillow. I think of
two women:
My daughter spending her last night with
her husband and father of three children
before he returns to the war in Iraq. It is
a bitter sweet night of love and together-
ness before they face the reality of the
front lines again; she faces the loneliness
and struggle for patience of single parent-
hood again while he faces a dusty desert
of mortars, machine gun fire and bradley
patrols.
The other woman, my niece, with a
lemon sized tumor removed from her body
near her heart. A woman who should have
been blessed with an epidural to bear the
fruit of a child instead, now fights the pain
of a 12-14 inch wound in her side. A bitter
fruit indeed.
The nights can be long, sleepless and brutal
when our hearts are full of pain.
I pray for both women as I lie here beside
my husband of over forty years. I think of
another whose broken heart endured a long
brutal night of pain in a garden; betrayed by
a friend, unending cruelty and torture. He
did it all for you and me.
I drop my burden at His feet with faith and
attempt to fall asleep knowing He can bring
peace and comfort to every wounded soul even
in the dark of night.
Beautiful!
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