Uncaged and Re-Defined by Grace.

Impossible is written on the walls,
failure is written on my face.
I am labelled.
This cage was made for a sinner,
and my sins have trapped me here.
The guilt presses upon me
and the hopelessness sucks the air out of this prison.
I do not breathe in oxygen,
but despair.

My shackles hold me,
chain me to my fear and to my shame,
and I am seen for what I am.
I am put on display,
paraded naked to the world,
so that my deepest shame is transparent
and I am condemned for it.

They laugh. They mock,
they shout out words that feel like stones upon my skin
and leave bruises.
Unworthiness becomes my cloth
and disgust crowns my head.
And I deserve this place,
this sinners place,
these chains.

And as they crowd around,
so anxious to add to the labels
and spit at my feet,
One face in the millions stands out.

A piercing gaze.
A penetrating stare
that looks beyond the words burned into my skin,
written into my flesh
and shaped into the steel bars.
He see's further
into the very depths of my heart.

It hurts, to know that being naked is not enough
that there are no secrets left unknown,
and then something astounding happens,
He whispers my name.

He doesn't call me failure,
loser
disgraceful
repulsive
vile
or unworthy.

He calls me by name.

He is standing right in front of the cage now,
and it's just me and Him,
or at least it seems that way.
He holds me in His gaze
and I see love in His eyes,
and I wonder,
what does he see in me?

He slowly, delibrately reaches His hand
through the twisted steel of the bars
and as His hand slides through,
it slices into His skin
and yet, He does not waver.
Not as the blood hits the ground,
or as the cut grows deeper.

I reach back in my chains
and the minute His hand folds over mine
I am changed.

The ground is stained red,
and He is standing before me,
no cage to seperate us,
no crowd around us,
and the words that have labelled me
are gone
cast away
and forgotten.
He has re-defined me in grace.
And I am free of my chains because of His blood.


Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me,
I was once lost, but now am found,
was blind but now I see

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved,
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.

My chains are gone,
I've been set free
My God, My Savior, has ransomed me,
And like a flood, His mercy reigns,
unending love, amazing grace.