War for My Soul

A whisper breathed softly through the verdant green foliage of the forest. A voice so still, at first I mistook it for sheer imagination. Yet over and over it called my name. It wasn’t menacing, nor was it rank with foul ambition. It rang clear and strong through the quiet darkness, piercing my heart and breaking walls built long ago. Darkness shrank away at its touch; light filled its volume.

“Come to me.”

It was not a siren song, rather the call of a heartbroken father wishing his child were with him again. Strangely, my heart leapt at its kind touch. I wanted the speaker’s warm embrace to wash away my sins of self and hate.

“No.” growled a cold, calculated voice. “He is mine, and mine alone.” A pang of paralyzing fear shot through my entire being. Somehow, I knew this new voice was that of evil, nay, the Father of it.

The greens of the leaves and trees around me slowly curled into the darkest shades of black. The figures of demons and ghosts of a life poorly lived closed in around. Apparitions of the blackness of my own heart crushed me, trying so desperately to drown out the luminous, loving voice.

“Help!!!”

Beams of pure sunlight tore through my self-imposed cage of anxiety and damnation. Soft hands lifted me out of the sour pit I had sunken myself into. If I were to try and describe the face that smiled down on me in that moment, my heart would break with the sheer force of joy.

Coursing through my veins was a cleansing grace so bright and hot it burned away the barricades in my soul. It gave me the hope of a bright future, and a life lived in honor of the one who had rescued me from my own devices.

I was redeemed.