Love me in the pain

"Tides they turn, and hearts disfigure but that's no concern when we're wounded together"

I was talking to my youth pastor once. Ranting about how much I need to figure out and sort through and heal from before I could ever be in a relationship. He looked at me and said "Yeah I see your point... but Abby, wait for someone who can see you even in the midst of your pain, with scars, with maybe some unresolved issues... and love you in it."
It stuck with me.
For my entire life I've been of the mind that I need to figure so many things out on my own. That I need to get to a certain place alone with Jesus before I can invite other people into that part of my heart. And there is a place for intimacy. In the deepest places, only He can reach down and heal the wounds. And He is our First Love - nothing and no one should ever come before.
But I guess what I am realizing now is that He can and desires to use other people to reveal different pieces of His heart. It may be from a place I expect, and it may be from the place I least expect.
What I do know is this - it is not by my own design that healing comes. I give my pain to Him first - He provides the solution. Through a piece of art, a piece of creation, His word, another person... whatever the source... He IS love.And "He is revealed in our love" (TWLOHA).
So I will breathe. I will love. I will open my heart... and I will be alive.
Maybe this is over simplified.
But I'm healing.

<3