{"id":14,"date":"2015-02-02T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2015-03-25T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:12:35","slug":"healed-wounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"Healed Wounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes deep wounds healed over time can be&nbsp;overlooked&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>During the last days of my mom&#8217;s life, my sister and I had wonderful opportunities to talk.&nbsp; Some were light and surface level, others were deep and rich.&nbsp; During one time of digging deeper, my sister asked if I had any desire to find and meet my biological father and his two daughters.&nbsp; I said no.&nbsp; Then she asked me a question I hadn&#8217;t thought of asking myself&#8230;.why?<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, I would have answered very differently.&nbsp; I considered looking for him.&nbsp; I had so many questions.&nbsp; Why did he leave?&nbsp; Why didn&#8217;t he&nbsp;visit?&nbsp; Why didn&#8217;t he write?&nbsp; Why didn&#8217;t he call? &nbsp;Did I do something wrong?&nbsp;&nbsp; Was he ashamed of me?&nbsp; Really, I wanted to know what was so wrong with me that even my own father didn&#8217;t want me.<\/p>\n<p>So as I paused and searched my heart, I wondered why my answer changed. That&#8217;s when I realized what God had done.&nbsp; He had healed those childhood wounds more completely than I realized.&nbsp; He had answered those questions I had for my father.&nbsp; He told me that I was HIS child.&nbsp; He told me that He had made me wonderfully.&nbsp; He told me He loved me and rejoiced over me.&nbsp; He told me that my father&#8217;s leaving was not about me, but about him.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Now with my questions answered and my heart filled with God&#8217;s love, my desire to look for my father diminished.&nbsp; The holes that once peppered my heart were no longer there.&nbsp; Instead, there&nbsp;was wholeness and peace; there was forgiveness for my father.&nbsp; God had been working faithfully.&nbsp; Healing had come so&nbsp;sweetly and gently that I&nbsp;almost missed it&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes deep wounds healed over time can be&nbsp;overlooked&#8230;. During the last days of my mom&#8217;s life, my sister and I had wonderful opportunities to talk.&nbsp; Some were light and surface level, others were deep and rich.&nbsp; During one time of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=14\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}