RETRIEVING WHAT THE ENEMY STOLE.

Life is far from being a movie, In a movie, you are born and within minutes you grow up. Real-life is about the experiences, the journey, the regrets, tears, and not forgetting the triumphs. I will give you one minute to figure out why this picture means so much to me? This picture represents the following things;

1. Ị was four months when the picture was taken, I have a connection with this picture that most will not understand, this picture tells me I was born like everyone else. Though I was born premature, I grew to be healthy, chubby, and cute.
2. This picture tells me why my mother had to fight for her little girl.
3. This picture, through my eyes, tells me that I was aware of the difficulty and complexity of the life ahead.
4. This picture tells me, that I constantly have to take back the life I was destined to have. It is a constant and endless battle, that I have to win if I want to remain on purpose.

Some years ago, on a trip to Nigeria, I visited my parents, while I was there, I pleaded with my Mum, to let me take some pictures from her archives because I needed them to authenticate my stories.
As I went through the pictures and came across this one, a wave of emotions swept over me. I hated this picture when I was younger, I wondered why I was so fat, on that day I loved it! It reminded me that I was like everybody else. What I saw looking at the picture tallied with what I so desired and that is to be like everybody else. Hurray! I was not born a freak of nature! I spent some days with my parents and left for Lagos. We were driving from the airport to my Sister's house in Lekki when the unthinkable happened. We were attacked by armed robbers. I found myself alone in the car with seven robbers, all wielding their AK 47s, they stripped me of everything except the clothes on my back. They made away with my Miu Mui purse and the contents. Of everything they took, the one thing that hurt me was this picture, Mama said it was the only copy, that day it felt like the enemy had stolen my only connection to being like others, Now, I no longer had a record of being normal or so I thought. One day a package came in the mail, It was from Mama, the package was thick I thought it was money as my father was in the habit of sending money. Excitedly, I tore the package open. A picture fell out, there was a short note attached to the picture. This was the picture and the note from Mama read."My dear daughter Chinwe, this is to replace what the enemy has stolen". That package restored hope to me. The enemy has not stopped trying to steal my dreams, aspirations, and purpose. He is constantly working on replacing the truth with lies. His motive is to derail me. He will use people around me to do that. My job is to stay up, my duty is to keep rising and proving him and his agents wrong. As long as I have breath in me, I will fight.
I will rather die living my purpose than live a purposeless life.
May God give us the strength to retrieve what the enemy stole. Do you have similar experiences? Let's share.