Is it wrong that I wanted to hide my wounds?

The whisper is familiar: 'What if they see?' So you learned to keep the tender places turned away from people—the memories that haven't healed all the way, the marks you carry quietly. That instinct made sense. When something hurts, you shield it. That's not a failure of faith. That's just what you do when you're trying to protect something real.

Here is what the scripture says: 'You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.' Look at the order. He hears the desire first—before the prayer, before the words are even formed. The desire for safety. The wish for the ache to stop. The longing to just be okay. He heard that when you pulled back. He heard it in your silence. The hiding itself was a kind of cry, and He was already listening.

So no, it wasn't wrong. You weren't running away from God—you were hurting, and you did what people do when they're hurt. And the whole time, He was leaning in. Not disappointed. Not waiting for you to stop hiding before He showed up. Just there, hearing the thing underneath the hiding.

The wound doesn't have to disappear tonight. You just don't have to carry it alone anymore. He already knows what's there, and He hasn't moved away.