A New Legacy of Healing Can Start With YouNäide

The God Who Rewrites Our Wounds

There’s an old truth that still rings true: you can only give away what you already possess.

It sounds obvious, right?

I can’t give away a million dollars because I don’t have a million dollars in the first place. But this doesn’t just apply to money. It applies to our emotions, our hurt, our pain.

If all I carry inside me is anger, guess what comes out when I’m bumped? Anger.

If all I’ve ever learned is neglect, then love feels foreign, and my “normal” often repeats the same neglect.

Psychologists call this the cycle of abuse.

Decades of research show that pain, when unhealed, tends to reproduce itself.

For example, studies show that boys who grow up witnessing domestic violence are more than twice as likely to abuse their partners as adults compared to those who didn’t witness it. (2)

The wounds of yesterday echo into the actions of tomorrow.

Trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk put it this way, “The body keeps the score: if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreak and gut-wrench, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems, and not as a narrative story, the survivor will be vulnerable to acting out the pain.” (3)

In other words, if we don’t transform our pain, we transmit it.

We see this dynamic in the life of Moses.

Think of his story as a baby.

He was given away by his mother in a desperate act of love.

He was rescued and raised in Pharaoh’s palace, safe, fed, and privileged.

But never fully at home.

He didn’t belong to the Egyptians, but he wasn’t with his Hebrew people either.

Can you imagine the inner confusion?

He probably carried shame for surviving while his people suffered, anger at injustice, and loneliness from not knowing where he fit.

One day, that inner pain boiled over.

Exodus tells us, “...He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian…” (Exodus 2:11-12, NIV)

Do you see it?

Moses’ unhealed story spilled out into violence.

He thought his people would rally around him, but instead they rejected him, “...Who made you ruler and judge over us?...” (Exodus 2:14, NIV)

The cycle repeated. Moses, who was once rejected and displaced, became a man rejected and displaced again, this time fleeing to Midian.

Even there, when he tried to help some women at a well, they assumed he was Egyptian (Exodus 2:19).

Imagine the ache. His whole life, he never fit. Never truly known.

But something shifted in Exodus 3.

Moses sees a bush on fire that doesn’t burn up, and then hears his name, “Moses! Moses!” (Exodus 3:4, NIV)

In Hebrew writing, the doubling of a name signals deep affection and intimacy. God wasn’t shouting at Moses in anger; he was calling to him in friendship.

And then God roots Moses in belonging, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Translation?

“Moses, you’re not a mistake. You’re not an orphan. You belong to me. You have a story bigger than your pain.”

In that moment, the narrative shifts.

Moses’ anger, which once led him to kill, becomes zeal that God shapes into courage, leadership, and compassion.

He becomes the one who confronts Pharaoh, splits seas, and leads a people into freedom.

God didn’t erase Moses’ past; he redeemed it.

And here’s the invitation for us: what God did for Moses, he can do for you.

The cycle of pain can stop with you.

God can take what was meant to wound you and turn it into wisdom.

He can take your anger and shape it into holy passion.

He can take the shame of rejection and make you a safe place for others to belong.

Prayer

God of Moses, You know my story, the wounds I carry, the shame I hide, the patterns I can’t seem to break. Call me by name. Remind me that I belong to You. Take my pain and make it sacred. Take what was meant to harm me and use it for good. Rewrite my story with Your love. Amen.

Reflection

What an encouraging statement: the cycle of pain can stop with you. Take out your journal, and write about a time you have seen God already use your pain for good.

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(2) Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Violence Prevention. “Domestic Violence and Child Abuse.” Violence Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, accessed August 21, 2025. https://violence.chop.edu/domestic-violence-and-child-abuse?

(3) Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score