UNAWARE

By Damilola Oluyemi

SAFACS 2023 ENTRY 8

I have had many men, yes plenty of them. My life has been one crazy ride; rollercoaster, very wild. I knew I was one of a kind because a woman of no virtue like me was still hard to find. I had done different things to keep these men. Some of them were highly parasitic, yet I wanted them. My pearls had been cast before swines at a very tender age. To me, men were the only ones who could carve my image. I needed to feel valid and not outdated. Yes! Their presence did make me feel validated.

Hmm... It's just that there was a depth that hundreds of them could not fill and a height that the tallest of them could not reach. I emptied myself on all of them, it made no sense. Even married five of them, still no difference. I'm with the sixth one who is six feet plus hoping his love would pull me up from six feet under where I'm tied up. Men whose six-packs couldn't bag me six bags of rice, how would they make my spirit rise?

It was not until my thirst for true love drive me to the well of salvation that I began to see. I saw the one who asked me for a drink yet He had the drink that I need. "Living water" He called it. "Drink and thirst no more" He added.

Oh!!! I took a sip and that was the beginning. For I wanted more and more. As I gulped the liquid up, I saw my scales falling off. Eyes opened to see LOVE at the source. My thirst is quenched but I can't get enough. The Spirit and Life in His words restored my soul. With my burdens lifted, I had my testimony to tell. Indescribable was the relief I felt for my past is out of my shelf.

"Out with the old, in with the new"

"I'm not the one you once knew. I'm now seated in the heavenlies above earthly view. For my Lover is the ingredient that cooks my stew" I said to some of the men who claim to have what I was looking for.

These men held no water. They did not have the Living water. They gave what they had. So what they think about me no longer matter. The glass through which people saw me shattered.

For Love had poured His wine into this wineskin and I can't burst, I only overflow with the Love that He pours into me.

Once, I was unaware that I was not living.

I was unaware that for my life His was taken. I was no longer that Nigerian woman selling herself to buy love. I have become love for I'm in love with LOVE.

Now, my life speaks volumes of His kingdom and everyone can behold this new thing that Abba had done.