If you have not been paying attention, Jaycee Lee Dugard was the girl kidnapped at age 11 by a couple near her bus stop in Lake Tahoe.

Searches for years found nothing, all leads were dead ends and all hope was lost…and then she accidentally emerged 18 years later, alive with two children by her kidnapper, after being held in a prison compound in his back yard in California.

 So what are the lessons?

The first is easy:  Never give up as long as there is a shred of reason to believe.  Hope lives on despite the dreadful silence of not knowing.  Yes, sometimes the resolution is tragic.  By sometimes like this care, or Elizabeth Smart’s case, it is not.  For her, I cannot imagine the hopelessness she felt, the horror her endured.  And yet, a miracle happened and she was freed.

Which leads us to the second lesson:  Sometimes even our imaginations cannot do justice to the absolute sick depravity of people, and the evil they can do.  People like the Garrido’s, or Joseph Duncan (the Groene family murders) are so sick and depraved, so down right twisted and evil, that I cannot fathom how they can live with their crimes, and how anyone can defend them.

Joseph Garrido defended himself thus:

In a rambling phone interview with a Sacramento TV station, Mr Garrido admitted he did a “disgusting thing” but defended himself, saying the public would be surprised by the ”heart-warming story”.

He said he had not admitted to a kidnapping and he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

”I tell you here’s the story of what took place at this house and you’re going to be absolutely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place from the end to the beginning. But I turned my life completely around,” he said.

”You’re going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim - you wait. If you take this a step at a time, you’re going to fall over backwards and, in the end, you’re going to find the most powerful heart-warming story.”

Unspeakable horrors, cruelty and inhumanity are now ”heart-warming”.  Right.

Kidnapped kicking and screaming at age 11, shoved in a car, driven away, imprisoned in a tent in a back yard, raped and forced to bear the children of her rapists, as her rapists wife watched on…Yea…warms my heart right up.

These people cannot be of the same species as their victims, yet they are.

We are taught in church to forgive, to leave justice in God’s hands.  This is an area I struggle with.  A lot.   I don’t want to forgive.  I just want to rescue the victims and beat the crap out of the criminal animals.

I believe in Justice (even if OJ walked) and I believe in due process.  But when I think of these people…I have a hard time containing my rage.

I pray for the victims. 

And I pray for myself, that I don’t allow my anger to become hate.

I also learned one other lesson.  I am blessed and lucky.  I have never had to face that kind of evil. 

Excuse me while I go hug my daughter….