A mere few weeks ago the lilies near our driveway were covered with buds, each passing day they grew larger along with my anticipation for the beauty they would put on display. And then catastrophe happened…on one of my morning walk-abouts, I discovered that every last bud had been chomped, leaving only the green leafy stem of each lily. I was devastated.

This week, on another walk about through the yard, I saw where the lily plants had been further eaten. Every last leaf on each stem was gone. Where once a healthy green stem bore many leaves and several potential blooms, now what remains is a spindly looking green stick shoved in the ground.

Deer. I’m not happy. They devoured and defiled something of beauty. I felt and continue to feel devastated and angry.

I know the deer need food, but I don’t understand why they can’t be satisfied with the lovely green grasses of our lawn or the pine needles on branches within easy reach? 

Such is heartache for some of us as life–meant to be innocent, pure and beautiful–is ravaged by deep hurt…our childhoods devoured by someone feeding an addiction or satisfying a sinful nature in all the wrong places.

Recently–and not merely this one story–I have heard accounts from women (and men) who were sexually molested/abused as children, often as only a toddler. Stories of inappropriate touch…unwelcome hugs and kisses…acts that are meant to be shared between a husband and wife…some of the predators were family friends, a sibling, and even a parent. Story after story –sharing after sharing–always leaves me feeling paralyzed, the kind of immobilization that makes me truly try to comprehend “why” did those horrific things happen? How could anyone harm a child, a teen, a loved one….

Certainly, the destruction of a lily does not nor ever measure in equality of hurt compared to harming an innocent child. But what the two images in my mind accomplish for me is how something with purpose–a beautiful plant–a uniquely created human being–both fashioned by God…can easily and quickly be destroyed.

My lilies will survive, though they will not bloom this season. The spindly stems will dry up, finish feeding the bulb which is safe under the soil and come up again next spring.

The harmed child will survive, too, but what scars will remain? How will life be different carrying around unhealed hurt or burying pain that was told to remain secret?

Like the bulb buried in the soil, there is hope. In our Celebrate Recovery Ministry we have many individuals who have found healing from the unintended destruction in their lives. By facing their hurts–by coming out of denial that problems don’t exist as a result of things done to them against their will–by bringing their past out of the darkness like that black dirt my liles live in, they are emerging into the Light of Christ Who promises healing, restoration, and new life!

Yes, deer chomp plants. Yes, people hurt people. But God is in the business of overcoming anything that keeps us from living an abundant life.  

Anything.