Reflecting on where life was ten years ago last week, a friend of mine wrote a piece of her story, strong and brave, and offered to share it here. You might remember her from {Thanks}giving Week last year. May Laura Anne’s words challenge and encourage your heart…what a strong reminder of the amazing God who loves us they are to me!

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was known as the Bacardi Queen. She was a bubbly caring sort of lass who loved to dance, with a thick Scottish accent and quite the potty mouth. She liked to drink Bacardi and often got a little tipsy as her teeny body filled up with alcohol and sugar, and the Bacardi would turn into tears and anguish of all the hurts she’d kept locked inside of her. The queen wanted to be away from all the hurt, so she came up with a plan to escape.

And then a chance came! The Bacardi queen gave up on her love of dance and studied hard hoping it would earn her a ticket to another world, a world free of all the people that had hurt her.

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The Bacardi queen got her ticket, but at a high cost. She had to sacrifice the life of her unborn daughter in order to keep it. She made the sacrifice, and got to keep her ticket, and so she ran away to a place in the far North where she met people from foreign lands.

There seemed to be a never-ending flow of Bacardi in this land, and the queen drank and soon all the tears came out and the queen felt all the pain that she’d not allowed herself to feel before. Soon the pain began to overwhelm her and she went on a search for something that would ease it.

She met some strange people. They called themselves Christians. These Christians were funny characters, and did things and said things the queen found very bizarre. One day she asked one of them to take her to the place where they all gathered, and she saw them all together for the first time. There was an energy she had not encountered before, and being a curious sort of girl she decided to investigate further. What was this energy they had that she did not? She wasn’t sure what it was but her instincts said it was good.

After some months of observation and a little bit of study, she found out what it was. Agape. Love.

But could the queen partake of this love after the sacrifice she’d made for her ticket?

She decided to dance again, but it did not bring her the same kind of love that the Christians had.

One day the Christians caught her singing, and they asked her if she would lead them in songs. But the songs were about the love she couldn’t have and she didn’t know how to tell them that.

The more she tried to sing, the harder it got to hold in the hurt, until she finally told one of the Christians about why she couldn’t have the love they had. “There’s a bigger sacrifice that was taken up and it makes up for the one you made”, said the Christian. “Look! See!” And he showed her in a book that it was true, and he explained to her how to receive the Agape.

And that day, the Bacardi Queen began a transition…gradually she put down her Bacardi crown, and she got a new crown of laurels, and could now use the name she was first given:

Victory. Grace. Worshipper of God.

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Laura Anne, thank you for so bravely sharing your story. Knowing the work you do now, considering the life you are living for the Lord — it is such a beautiful picture of the God who Redeems. Thank you for living it and sharing it with many.

And friends, Laura Anne blogs at Learning from Sophie, if you haven’t checked her out already!

xCC

P.S. Do you have a story to share and want a space to share it? I’d love to create an opportunity for you to step up to the metaphorical microphone. Please get in touch!