Bourbon Street was a Baroque painting. Darkness lurked in the void space between neon and yellow lights and the staggering incandescence of the spotlight the city used to illuminate the sins of the Mardi Gras tourists, who were made the focal point of the Painter's design. As they rolled by, the street filled with heaviness, pressing on my heart a love for the lost souls that slumped and sauntered through each other. I wanted them to know. I wanted them to understand everything they were missing, but so many things were being projected at them: beads, drinks, music, bodies, and even howls from other lost souls.
"You're wretched!"
"God hates your wickedness!"
The more they bellowed and marched, the more fuel the darkness devoured. It ravaged Bourbon Street like wildfire and the only thing to quell it was controlled flames.
"How can I pray for you?" was met with sundry retorts.
"No thanks, I'm already a Christian."
"Leave me alone with that crap."
"That's okay, I don't want Him to see me like this."
My heart shatters and clatters into the thick trash and Kaleidoscope of beads under my feet. If only they knew.
If only they knew how beautiful they are to their Father. If only they knew how despairingly He is pursuing them. If only they knew how He yearns to be with them, to be in deep intimate relationship with them: With the girl flashing herself to the men on the balcony, With the homeless man in a drunken stupor, hanging onto the light-pole for support. If only she knew how he created every curve on her body for a man that's waiting to honor her and show her respect. If only he knew of the living water that wants to give him clarity and foundation.
If they knew, would they seek their worth in Him rather than the beads around their neck? In something other than the flesh that disappoints them? Would they see themselves how He sees them? How He lets me see them?
All these things run through my mind as I look through the shell that carries them, and into their desolate eyes. I'm stretching to reach them so that He can fill them with life, light, and love. So, I keep on...
"How can I pray for you?"
