Preservation

This morning the text of the message came from Psalm 121.  I take a Romanian/English parallel Bible to church with me and after reading the Romanian with the congregation, I read the Scripture in English.

I read words so very familiar, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills..." Beautiful words.  On I read to verse seven. 
I paused. 
I stopped. 
I read again. 
I thought. 
The message from the front didn't penetrate my mind. They were good words, but I couldn't hear.  I could only hear verse seven.

"The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.  He shall preserve your soul."  

And I thought of the sweet, beautiful girl sitting next to me, Essie.  How did God preserve her life?  She believed in Him as a small child.  She walked with Him.  Her life remained pure before Him.   And then a trusted friend kidnapped her and sold her abroad.   Forced to use drugs and prostitute herself, she was robbed of every dream she had in life. 

When she escaped, the TV news broadcast her story and everyone in her village and church knew where she had been and what she had done. They all became her judge.  No longer Essie, she became the woman wearing the scarlet "A". 

Her hopes and dreams were gone.

So as I read this, I pondered her story.  God in His still, small voice spoke to me.  He did preserve her from the evil.  He preserved her soul. 

I'm not a scholar of Greek, and I won't debate Bible translations.   But these words, as they were translated, screamed at me this morning.    

"God shall preserve you from all evil.  He shall preserve your soul."  There remained a promise for her in these verses.  They did not mock her pain.  They gave hope to her pain. 

I moved closer to Essie and shared with her the words God was speaking to me. 

I had no answer for why this happened in her life.  I would not say that God allowed this as the plan for her life.

BUT I can know that God preserved her. 

Right now everyone in Moldova is busy preserving.  We preserve vegetables and fruit, which are in abundance now, to eat in the winter.  If we simply set them on a storage shelf, they'd be rotten in a week, but preserved, their goodness will last until next summer when new vegetables grow again.

The Lord spoke the same for Essie.  Although forced into a very dark place, seeming so far from God, He preserved her life from the evil.  He preserved her soul.   I do not understand why this happened to her, but I do know that God was there, walking with her, preserving who she is.  She is not rotten or bitter.  Of course, she is filled with sadness and hopelessness, but she is still so incredibly sweet. 

When she came into the home, I immediately saw the difference in her.   Every other girl comes in hard and cold.  She came in soft and warm.  She appeared hurt and sad, but the light of who she is still shone through.  She had a sweetness I had not seen in new resident. 

God preserved her soul. 

I like this translation because some translations say that God will keep us from evil.  Or it seems that they God is a celestial guard who stops everything bad in our lives.  When we believe this, we must question why He didn't keep Essie.  Did He fail? 

No, the world is full of evil, and she is a victim of sex-trafficking.  BUT God preserved her.  Her soul is still His.  I see hope in these words.  She never turned from Him, and He never turned from her. 

Please pray for Essie this week. 

She is not sure that God still wants her. 
She is not sure she is worthy of Him.
She carries heavy guilt for a crime she did not commit.  

Pray that she can believe that He never left her side. 
Pray that she will know that He will give her a crown beauty for the ashes in her life.
Pray that she will understand that she is still an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.  
Pray that she will understand that God has preserved her and that He will heal her pain and make her new once again.