Loved Exactly in the Breaking

The day is ending, and the armor you wore since sunrise finally feels too heavy to carry. You are terrified that if you stop moving, someone will see the cracks—that they will find out you are still in the middle of falling apart.

But the light does not wait for you to be whole before it comes close. There was a father who saw his son coming home from a long way off.

He ran. Before the apology, before the speech, before the mess was cleaned up—he ran.

The light sees the dust on your face and does not turn away. It knows you are breaking, and it loves you in the breaking.

You do not have to hide the pieces. The only thing that needs to be true tonight is that you are here, still standing, still breathing.

The fear of being found out is the last lie the darkness tells you. You have already been found.

And you are loved exactly as you are.