I want to be that for you.... [redemption]

In light of recent conversations... Here is a neat excerpt from a book i'm currently reading for class about suffering and knowing that God is real... the ending is the best part. :)

[excerpt #1] :: In the face of many of the things I interpreted as a kid as being a negative commentary on my self-worth, the Lord showed me that I am lovable and infinitely precious in His eyes. And He caused me to experience this... In the face of the abandonment I experienced, the Lord said to me, "I will never leave you or forsake you". And in the face of my need for the unconditionally loving mother I never had, the Lord said, "I want to be that mother to you." And "He" is! Christ isn't our adversary in times of suffering: He's our cure. 

Christ became that for me. My soul was, and is, filled with the unconditional love of Jesus. And unconditional love is the only life source for the soul and the only medicine for its wounds. An intellectual answer could never do that. My question still remains, but Christ has won my trust in Him by showing me His Beauty - the beauty of a Love, a Grace, a Tenderness, a Gentle Strength which no mere human being could ever match. He won my love and trust through the healing compassion of His eyes and the warm understanding of His embrace. He provided an understanding in the heart which the mind could never grasp. (That's why the Bible says that God gives believers a 'peace that surpasses all understanding'). 

[excerpt #2] :: That is exactly the kind of God Christianity proclaims. There is no other belief which does this... Only the gospel dares to proclaim that God enters smack-dab into the middle of the hell we create. Only the gospel dares to proclaim that God was born a baby in a bloody, crap-filled stable, that He lived a life befriending the prostitutes and lepers no one else would befriend, and that He suffered, firsthand, the hellish depth of all that is nightmarish in human existence. Only the gospel portrait of God makes sense of the contradictory fact that the world is at once so beautiful and so ugly.God is a god who suffers with you. He cries too. And through His participation in our pain, He wants to redeem it. 

This is true for me as well...

I have found a peace that passes my understanding,
and a LOVE that is beyond my comprehension.

I am redeemed and I am being made new.

I am LOVED...and so are you.