When Trials Are Won. And the Most Unlikely Witness Of All.

The room sweats with suffering.  And faces are mute with agitation.  Agitation of the worst kind.  The kind like when watching a scary movie.  And you can’t run.  Can’t scream.

Courtroom insisting.  No one leaving.  Glued to the bench.  Staring.  Though we all want to turn away.

Evidence roars like thunder, as a lightening of evidence strikes the darkest days.  Intruding that place where….memories lie.

And little girls are beaten….

It is there.  Even the blind can see.  This offender.  Sitting smiling. Guilty.

But yet, we live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

And with a jury of twelve.  All glued to the same screen…

You can never tell if by some chance, the guilty will be let free.  Little girl forever in fear, if even one person questions….

Without a reasonable doubt.  For some reason sympathizes….with the one who abused.

So, we sit.  Nail biting.  Fidgeting.  As household objects are presented to the court.  Shrinking as these wounds, found all over our little girl….

Are shown on a screen.  Supersized.  In the courtroom.

And the pain of reality strikes me like a blow to my gut.

One.  Even I cannot stomach.  The ribs showing from a child intentionally starved…..who, if hadn’t been reported….could have died within days.

Yet, reality is.  As I breath.  Really deep.  Puposefully.  So I do not faint….

I look at the those scars.  Every day.  At least, the one’s left where Jesus scars might lay.  On the wrists of both hands.

And the guards are wise to amplify their presence.  For even I.  A Christian.  Struggle loving someone so utterly wicked….as to torture a little girl.

And, before it started….

I prayed. God, I don’t know how you will do it….but let everyone see….you.

Despite this crime.  This child’s abuse. The incriminating evidence filling the room.

I waffle within.  As defense attorney…tries to place doubt in the jury’s heads.

Then, he get’s on the stand.  Friend of the abuser.  For almost ten years.  Ex-alcoholic.  Ear-ring wearing.  White goat-e.  No hair on his head.  Looking more like a Satanist than a witness that could give any kind of character reference.

And when he speaks.  It is not eloquent.  But simple.  Plain.  Hesitant.

Defense attorney questioning.  In hopes of him supporting.  His child abusing defendant.

But then, something keeps happening.  “I have a little problem.”  He interrupts.  Keeps telling him.  Over and over again.

They pull him off the stand.  Detective takes him to another room.  Questions him.

He weeps.  Repents.

Conscience wraps around him like the whip from my child’s abuser.

Then, He resurfaces the stand.  Like a freshly scaled snake.  Who has shed his old skin.

His face.  Brighter.  His countenance…..ready to tell the courts something…..we can’t wait to hear.

He goes on.

“I saw something.”  He speaks against His friend. The defendant.  The abuser.

“It was one day. In the basement. She got mad.  Put a knife to the child’s throat.  Then threatened the child, she would never see her family again. I swiped the knife from her throat.  And told my friend to leave her alone.  I have kids.  And it broke me up inside to think of anyone doing something like that to them.”

Conscious killing him.  Wiping his eyes.  Tears of repentance.  Washing away lies.

And the case was won.

It was won.

Not from our educated, thorough, professional lawyer….who we absolutely love.  Or from a detective who was excellent and gathered enough evidence to incriminate the defendant.

But, the trail was won…..from the least likely.  Most unsuspecting.  Most unassuming witness.  Stumbling to the stand with his half rolled cigarettes.

And as I talk to the Prosecuting attorney when he is finished.  She tells me.  Only once in 22 year….ever…..has a client flipped on the defense.

Yes, pain always leaves a room thick.

But, truth and justice will be done.  Life restored.  Healing done….

Victory won….often in the most unlikely ways…..

God of all glory.  To God be all praise….

Conviction found.  In the most unlikely witness of all.

An apparent Satanist….

Humbled before the courtroom of God.



(Linking with Emily, Ann, Women In The Word, WLW)