Loreta left her home,
for she had found a strange home;
the love of a stranger
seemed more fascinating
than the love of those who loved her.
And so, love went on for Loreta.
She gave birth to two children—
two little lives,
whose father was known to God alone.
Then disease came knocking.
AIDS struck Loreta
and her newborn children.
Poverty entered through the same door,
and suffering became her companion.
Disease tormented her.
Hunger tormented her.
Loneliness tormented her.
And betrayal sat beside her
when no one else remained.
Then, somewhere beyond human hearing,
a whisper was heard:
“Loreta… Loreta…”
The prophet asked,
“Who is that, Lord?”
And the Lord described her.
He gave him the place where she lay,
and guided his steps
with the precision of the All-Knowing God.
The prophet went searching for Loreta.
And when he found her,
the description was unbelievably true.
For He is Truth—
and truth can never hide
from the Truth.
God saw what men had refused to see.
He saw her disease.
He saw her poverty.
He saw her betrayal.
He saw her loneliness.
But above all,
He saw her heart.
And from the depths of her brokenness,
Loreta cried out to the One
who had created her.
Her faintest cry
reached His ears.
She cried.
She repented.
And heaven heard.
The God who found her
did not condemn her.
He healed her.
He saved her.
He comforted her.
He fed her.
He gathered the pieces
of the life that had been shattered.
What men had abandoned,
God remembered.
What men had betrayed,
God restored.
What the world had overlooked,
God saw.
And Loreta—
who had lost so much—
received something back
that no man could give her:
her laurel.
Her honor.
Her dignity.
Her hope.
Her victory.
For the eyes of God
had pierced through her suffering
and seen into the deepest chambers
of her heart.
And He heard
even the faintest cry
of a forgotten woman.
Loreta gets her laurel back—
because she was never forgotten
by the One who knew her
all along.
John Mark
