The Abused

"When you were abused, so was He..."

I came up with the idea for this drawing on a bus last week, while I was pondering about how horrible my somebody had been to me.

I felt violated, upset and this really hurt. I felt like I'd been emotionally and verbally abused.

This made me think about abuse a bit. Millions of children all over the world are abused in many different ways, be it physically, emotionally, spiritually or verbally, or however else. Emotional abuse is the leader in child abuse, with 34% of cases. [read this PDF!]

In a spiritual sense, we always would tell someone that God is there. And if you try to visualise it, where do you think he would be? I think that many would visualise Him standing there watching. I don't think that at all. I think that Jesus was there, in that situation, feeling the same, if not more, pain that you were. In fact, there would be NOTHING he wouldn't understand. That's what I'm trying to represent in the painting. All those scars, he has them, and more.

"If God really cared about me he wouldn't have let this happen to me." My friend, he does care. In fact one day you will probably realise something good come out of this situation. It could be you become a good friend for someone else. Like Adrian Rowse says, use the situation to get closer to God.

Abuse is wrong. Tell someone about it. I cannot stress this enough. Be it you or a friend, or yourself, tell someone! (Take the risk) Often this is easier said than done.

This is something I am afraid of. In 2 years I will be a fully qualified teacher. Child abuse often goes unnoticed in so many children. How can I put a stop to that?

Anyway, I'll leave it there, but I'd really appreciate some comments on this.

Isaiah 53:4-5

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.