Julie's Vicious Attack

My husband had a patient who, in the midst of extreme pain, saw God's goodness. Julie (not her real name) was working alone as a volunteer in an art gallery when a man came in, raped her, hit her head with a hammer (she still has dents in her head), and then began stabbing her with a knife.

During the attack, she began praying, "Our Father which art in heaven...." It made him so angry that he stabbed her just above the eye in an attempt to blind her. After stabbing her multiple times in her abdomen, he finally left. 

I don't know if you will believe this or not," she told Daniel, "but while he was stabbing me, I saw Jesus. He had a crown of thorns on His head, and He said, 'I am with you. It will be all right.' I was lying there naked, being stabbed, but I wasn't afraid. I looked at His crown of thorns and thought, I know how you felt, and I knew He understood how much I hurt."

The attacker thought he was leaving her for dead. Somehow Julie managed to put on a smock and walked outside just as a policeman passed by. He called an ambulance, and she was taken to a hospital.

Before this traumatic event, Julie had been reading about different religions in a search for truth. "But when I saw Jesus, I knew He was truth," she declared. Beside her Bible on the bedside stand was a picture of Jesus with a crown of thorns. In this horrible situation, Julie found God's radiant presence to be infinitely more compelling than her pain. God's love, not the attacker nor her suffering, became her focus.

Because God is good, we will always find that He is with us and understands and feels our pain. Even when Satan intends to destroy us, God's presence is with us to bring comfort and understanding.

Jesus, thank You for Your presence that comforts us in our most difficult times.

"In all their suffering he also suffered" (Isaiah 63:9 NLT).