The forgiveness and healing I have received is available to all who seek it regardless of the number of your transgressions or the severity of them.
“Though I feared sharing what might make me an outcast among family, friends, and colleagues, I am finally bringing my baby, whose life I took, into the open, and I will share her with the world. I’m prepared for whatever disappointment or human judgment comes upon me. This captive has been set free, and she’s wearing a garment of praise!”
It took Margo Martin Rhodes more than thirty years to acknowledge, even to herself, much less to anyone else, that she had taken the life of her own offspring, a seed which God had entrusted to her body and care. The delayed understanding ultimately led her to process why so many other parts of her life had been managed in ungodly and unproductive ways—crises of her spirit and soul were inevitable. She shares, in Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore: Stories of Pity, Love, and Power, evidence of “hope for binding the brokenhearted, comfort for all who mourn, provision for those who grieve in Zion, freedom from darkness for the captives, the oil of joy for anointing, a garment of praise instead of despair, and the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Margo knows firsthand that the restoration proclaimed by Isaiah is available to all, and she now feels called to help others plagued by sin and regret to claim these promises: Instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance… that everlasting joy will be yours. (Isaiah 61:7, NIV)
