{ turn around daughter israel }

behold, I will bring them from the north country,
and gather them from the coasts of the earth,
and with them the blind and the lame,
the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child
together; a great company shall return thither.

- Jeremiah 31:8

One day as the Sisters are reading aloud to her, they come across the Book of Jeremiah.

On Lilith’s request, Sister Agnes spends the entirety of the evening, explaining how the Prophet in only a few chapters portrays God’s broken family in exact, colourful images. Daughter Israel who has fallen into sin and become a prostitute, the beloved son Ephraim who has broken the holy commandments and therefore must be chastised and finally, the weeping mother… Rachel – who grieves for her children who have become lost in the darkness while she herself died, in childbirth.

Lilith listens, breathlessly. In her mind, it is the picture of her own family. Herself the sinful daughter, Jean-Paul the disobedient son, Mother… Yes, Mother who almost died, giving birth to them and if she would only grieve… if she would only grieve once for Lilith’s sake, Lilith would die truly happy. Once again able to see God’s love, even blinded as she is. Because it would be reflected in Mother’s.

And like that, she would return to her Father in Heaven, certain that she would one day be reunited with Jean-Paul and Mother. They would all return there and they would be a family under God. For the first time healed into a whole.

Sister Agnes lets the poor girl sleep, leaving the Bible open next to her. For comfort.