Emma Carlson

The sound of tires slowing in the driveway, followed by the most gentle stop I think I’ve ever experienced. Like the car wasn’t totally sure we belonged here. I shut down the engine, but I’m not quite ready to go in. It almost seems like everything that happened since I last pulled out of this driveway was some separate reality. Or a brief detour that led me back home. I say brief but it was more like a misdirected 3 years. I guess in the grand scheme it’s not that long. Did I make the right...

I know he’s out there somewhere. I don’t know when, but I’ll meet him someday. Maybe he’s walking his own winding road right now, headed somewhere he doesn’t need to be— just like me. And somehow, that thought is enough. I keep moving, steady steps through the noise and the smoke, through a world that feels like it’s burning down. Still, I’m content. At peace. Hell all around me, but my heart— my heart is full.

the legion of demons — named as men, under the guise of holiness, of closeness, of perfection. first in line to the fruitful darkness. I was one way — consumed by brokenness, lost in the wilderness, a taste of hell in a world begging to be left behind. now, I am another — clothed in His armor, the first to know, the first to see. what happened in between was Him. a sacrifice. an example. a mercy I could never earn. once the first one in, now the first into the light. Love. Joy. Peace....