The Cross in the Window Current mood: grateful   This is for all those whom have ever been hurt. Who have known pain. Hopelessness. Doubt. To all those whom have been abandoned. Who have wondered in fear, or in anxiety. For all those whom have thought to hope, but have been afraid to believe in it. This story is for you. For all of us. And every word of it is true. Because it is true, I have changed the names involved. We will call her Jane, because everyone of us is a "Jane."   Jane had agreed to go on the trip because it was her best friend that invited her, and plus it seemed it would be so nice to get away. Being a teen wasn't easy anyway, but he somehow just seemed to understand her unlike anyone else. They never dated, and there weren't any crushes, just mutual understandings and a common ground shared equally. It was a long journey but she was excited. His mom would be driving and Jane loved her. She treated her more civially than anyone else had in the past. Even her own parents. They arrived tired form the journey, checked into their hotel and Jane and her friend began to make immediate sight seeing plans on foot. It was cold, middle of winter, but the prime of the day warmed with the sun and she left her jacket back at the hotel thinking nothing of it... and then things turned sour. Perhaps it was the fatigue of the journey, maybe they were just a bit too tired or a bit too hungry to curb the conversation. A few misunderstadnings, a few more terse words, and alot of anger ended in alot of hurt. He stormed off back to the hotel. She lingered behind, trying to compose herself before returning. When she returned to the hotel she found the room locked and the desk clerk informed her they had checked out. Gone. They left without her, and purposefully. The clerk took her up to the room but it was clean. All her things were gone, including her money, her wallet and her coat. NO MONEY. Not even for a phone call. They'd taken everything and left her deserted, many many many miles from her home. Outside it didn't take long for the sun to set and with it intense cold and winter rain began to come in with force. She had nothing. With no choice she began walking down the streets with,   No coat. No money for a phone call. Too far to walk home. And no one there whom cared enough to come looking for her. She was totally, and utterly alone.   Strong emotions, fear, and doubt all mixed with her tears. He had been her closest friend, and now he had left her without a care if she would live or die. They purposefully took her things, so she'd have nothing, a punishment that could have ended in death in more ways than one. As she was walking down street after street, crying, upset, hopeless and confused, she heard her name called out, as clear as though someone right behind her was looking for her and had found her, "JANE!!!" She didnt recognize the voice but turned around wondering who would have known her name in this foreign place. She saw no one, but her eyes came to rest on one house among many. It was an ordinary dwelling. Nothing set it apart from any of the others around and she didn't recognize it. Only one thing made it stand out. It had a Cross in the window.   At this time she didn't know what the Cross stood for. To her it had no meaning, it was only an object like a hundred other things people put to decorate thier homes. As a child Jane had been raised as a "future priestest" in a Satanist home. The abuse and neglect became so bad she was eventually taken into custody and placed into foster care. All her life she was taught "mixed messages" of what Love was. She was raised knowing fear much better than anything else. Even though the Cross itself did not mean anything hopeful to her, she was strangely drawn to it. She didn't know why, but she was. She turned her feet around from the direction she had been walking and began walking toward the ordinary house with the Cross in the front window.   She was terrified, not sure what she'd find on the other end of that door, but she knew she had to ring it and hadn't the faintest clue what drove her to. The man who answered the door was kind. He took her right in. Gave her a warm blanket first, followed closely by warm food and drink. Then he placed a call to the local authorities to see how they could help to get this child back home. No questions asked. No tracks shoved down her throat. No lectures. Just pure, quick, and whole hearted compassion and love. The man met her immediate needs and that is all there was to it. She didn't get his name, but I can guarantee you that man probably still continued to pray for Jane long after he waved good bye and closed his front door. She did eventaully get back to her foster home. It was along train ride and took a majority of a day and a half from start to finish of the entire journey, but eventually she did get there. She also eventually became a Christian. Many years later, but eventually she did get there. And it all started that night, with a voice calling out her name, a Cross in a window, and a man willing to live out Matthew 25:35-36... (and for a moment in time, that man became Christ to a lost girl)..."For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me...." Christianity is not about rules, it is about LOVE. It is about reaching out when given the chance! It is about stopping which way I'm going, turning around and walking in the direction of the Cross.   I still cry when I think of her story. Not just because she is someone I love and care for. But because there are so many, so very many whom are hurt and are waiting to be found. Whom are cold, broken hearted, abandoned and wandering around trying to find a way to keep death at bay. So many others that endure abuse, whom have been hurt, who feel deep deep pain and carry the scars from them.   I was there. Not in the physical sense as much as Jane was, but Spiritually diffinetly. (We all have been there.) Lost. Trying to find something or someone to meet my needs. To love me. To welcome me in and give me hope for a future. I wonder how many times God called out my name before I turned around? I wonder how many times I tried to quiet His voice in an effort to hear my own better? (and many times I still do.) How thankful I am that He never stopped calling, and one day I listened and opened all my hurts to Him and felt his hope fill me. Peace replaced fear. Even now when I cry out, He never hesitates to send His peace in replace of my fear. He always hears, unlike humans, He never turns a deaf ear.   ***If there is anyone out there whom indentifies with Jane, whom is hurting and searching, and growing tired of being cold and broken...tired of trying everything and getting no where... Head the voice. He calls your name and longs to change your life, to bring you home. To show you real love. It doesn't take a perfect chapel. It doesn't have to take walking down an alter even. Only a sincere heart that is tired of hurting. Call out to Him and He will meet you, right where you're at. He loves you so very much, and His only desire is to embrace you and spend the rest of His life showing you daily EXACTLY how much He loves you.***   "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11   ""Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." ~Matthew 7: 7-8   "Because he has set his love upon Me,  therefore I will deliver Him; I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation." ~Psalm 91: 14-16