At my home church, Rayne UMC in New Orleans, our pastor (Rev. Dr. Jay Hogewood) offered an extraordinary sermon on the familiar Biblical passage about the Good Samaritan. It helped me hear the story from a new perspective and relate it to being a survivor. I realized that we did indeed “fall into the hands of a robber” when we were abused as children.

This was hard for me. I have never wanted anyone to feel sorry for me, and would far rather help someone else than admit my own need. But like that traveler in the Biblical story, we were on our life journey—had just started it—and someone hurt us, robbed us of precious God-given possessions, and abandoned us to fend for ourselves. The fact that we are alive today is miraculous.

This month, for this blog, we will consider what was stolen from us. We will name the loss, understand that it was not our fault, and trust God to restore what was taken.

By JESUS MAFA. The Good Samaritan, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48381 [retrieved April 6, 2025]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).