Deep Shade

"Where were you?" she asked God time and time again. During the darkest hours of her life, she wondered where God was, and why he didn't save her from the physical pain that eventually left her and the mental torture of which she could find no escape. She was familiar with the well-known poem, and the image of Jesus carrying the man through the dark times of His life. But the figurative images in her mind of her dark days appeared quite different. She would see herself walking on a beach, then running through the cold air and the dark sky, tripping over rocks and sticks. Horrified about what was ahead of her and unable to stay where she was, she'd look over her shoulder and know that she could never go back. Behind her was innocence and purity, trust and love. And the further she ran, the more she watched what was fade dimly into thin air. But, to stand still was to only sink into the quicksands of her terror. She had little choice but to push forward, and when she looked over her shoulder into the sand for Jesus' footprints, she'd only see a huge tidal wave wash over her and pull her out to a merciless sea. When she would look back at the beach to see what was, what is, and what will be, she would only see the smooth sands of emptiness flooded by the relentless waters of time. All she would be left with was a lifelong struggle to keep her head above the water, and a question as she looked up to the sky, "Where were you?".