I’ve got my hands on the new camera and so I am sorting out my memory cards… And I came across the photographs Eli and I took the fateful night we were viciously attacked by a complete stranger.

It is difficult to imagine that the last photograph we took at the restaurant where we had a wonderful romantic dinner was less than 30 minutes before the next photograph I took of Eli’s blood covered face. The assailant had long fled the scene and we were waiting, for what felt like eternity, for the cops to arrive.

I will not be posting photographs from that horrific evening, but if you need an image, imagine the face of Jesus Christ in The Passion of Christ after He was scourged. No exaggeration.

Thy face was beautiful before, but in this journey it has lost all its beauty, and wounds and blood have disfigured it.

I am grateful for Eli’s recovery thus far. The bruises and swelling have gone down, stitches removed and ligaments healing. The physical scars remain and so do the fractured bones. The emotional and psychological wounds are healing. We have forgiven the attacker. Praise be Jesus.

I have no idea what I will do with the photos. Perhaps one day I will have the courage to look at them. But for now, they will be taken off the memory card so that we don’t accidentally chance upon them while reviewing photographs of another glorious day of our life. The cowardly assailant robbed us of that evening and for the weeks that followed, but he will not take any bit more from us.