Dear Caitlyn

I don't know you, and you don't know me. We will never meet. But I have seen  you in the news, on my Facebook wall, and a couple times on TV. I'm not like so many people who have strong opinions about your life. You see, I realize that I don't know you. And I also don't feel it is my responsibility as a co-human being to have a strong opinion about your life. I do, however, feel it is my responsibility to have compassion and love toward you. Because you are a fellow human being, and because God has taught me that we are all connected. Every one of us. So, even though I don't know you personally, I know you are human. And I believe humans to be created beings. And I respect God so I respect His creation as well. All of it.

If I ever did meet you, I would want to give you a hug. I can imagine your life has been full of hardships and difficulties. I don't know of any life that hasn't. Yours however, has been lived before a huge audience...whether by your own making, or the media's I don't know. You are the hot topic of today, and people who live in glass houses have no place to hide from the stones being hurled at them. It seems you have had a life of torment and confusion and shame and frustration, and these are the very things that make you like me and the rest of humanity.

There is so much debate. Why are you like this? Is something in your brain sick, and is that why you feel this way? Are you God's mistake or the result of our fallen world? I wonder if maybe God sent you here just like this to teach us more about compassion and love? Whether He did or didn't, I pray that will be the outcome of your life...greater love and compassion.

Caitlyn, all I want to say to you is that God loves you. You can hide under the shelter of His wing. He knows everything about you. He has seen every hurt and wound in your life. And He loves you. He is in constant pursuit of you. It doesn't matter much what you call yourself because He has a name for you...one that He alone calls you. He knows your heart. He knows what makes you cry and what makes you laugh. He chose to create you, because He wanted you.

Thank you, Caitlyn. Because of you, I have had to examine what I believe and who I am in connection to God and His creation. I realize that I am but a learner on this earth. God is my teacher. So I thank Him for you, Caitlyn. I thank Him because in His perfect wisdom He uses our brokenness to shine His light on the parts of us that need more of Him. Because we all do...need Him. Which is yet another way that we are more alike than we are different.