An Interesting Absence

I was enthralled watching Jaycee Dugard's first interview on Sunday night. I really can't believe the story. It's like a movie. It's amazing she was found and that she still has her sanity. Her stories were remarkable. I appreciated her attitude and willingness to share her experience with the world. What a miracle!

I was struck, though, by the lack of Christ. His absence was palpable, and because of that, there was a missing element to the story. That's really the feeling I got. Listening to her, and especially her mom, I told my wife, "There's something missing...it's Jesus." Faith in God was not really part of the story. And I wondered, perhaps, what an experience like that must do to whatever faith you might have had. I wondered what would happen to any of our faith in those situations. How would we view Christ if a crazed man that raped us read to us from the Bible, ESPECIALLY if we didn't have any grounding, which seems like is the case from her family.

And that is the biggest travesty of this all. This man took an 11 year-old girl with little faith background and did the most terrible things to her imaginable for 18 years while claiming to be a prophet sent by the God of OUR Bible. He didn't just steal her life. He warped her view of God in the ugliest way. He represented what she came to know as the God of the Bible. And it's so obvious that there is the missing element to her and her mom's recovery that I believe only God can be a part of.

I'm so glad that this woman and her two children have been rescued. I'm so grateful a mom got her little girl back. My hope and prayer is that over the next 18 years, God will place people in their lives who are true representations of who Jesus is, so that they can find the missing element to their recovery and redemption. I really believe this is true for all of us. I believe that there is a spot in our hearts and life that only Jesus can make sense of. Perhaps you've had some bad representations of Jesus in your life. Don't judge Jesus on bad apples. He just might be the missing element you need.