In her memoir He Carries Me, Divine Light shares how God comforted her through emotional pain and abuse and ultimately brought her to a place of peace, fulfillment, and healing.
As a small child, Divine Light couldn’t understand what she had done to deserve her father’s special love or why it had to be a secret. By her pre-teen years, though, she realized she was living in the nightmare of sexual abuse. The fear of hurting her mother kept her silent, but she suffered from uncontrollable bedwetting, poor school performance and self-isolation, finally running away from home.
Yet, through her suffering Divine Light felt a comforting presence helping her cope. As a child, she knew this as her “invisible friend,” but later, after attending church and studying the Bible, she came to realize it was the presence of God.
Light’s misfortunes continued with an adulterous husband, a long battle with cancer and more. Yet she joyfully shares how God ultimately brought her from “pain” to “victorious woman.” Today she is cancer-free and works as a minister to the inmates at New York Federal Prison, attributing her ability to overcome her challenges to her “invisible friend” guiding her life.
Readers will appreciate Divine Light’s delicate handling of the subject matter. She offers enough information for readers to understand the situations but refrains from graphic detail. However, the story of a father sexually abusing his toddler may still be difficult reading for teens and some adults.
Grammatical errors throughout and the author’s short, choppy sentences (“I got an apartment. Nothing like we had before. We got robbed”) make the narrative feel unpolished. Some may also be disappointed to find that the author never addresses what happened to her father; he vanishes from the book early on.
Regardless, Light’s intriguing storyline should keep readers turning pages. He Carries Me will appeal to anyone who has endured abuse and longs to find complete healing from emotional pain.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.
