She was tormented by demons.

Mary, a woman of Magdalene...or so she had once been called. Now she knew herself by a different name: possessed, enslaved, hopeless. She tried to fight the darkness. Countless times she ran from its grip, but the demons were always faster.

"Weak," they cackled at her efforts. You’re ours now.

She was an outcast. Cursed and broken beyond repair.

Until He came.

"Mary." He called for her, His voice echoing in the cavernous prison that entrapped her soul. Mary shrank from His voice. She had gone too far to be saved now.

"Mary." He spoke and the demons trembled. It was the carpenter, the teacher from Nazareth.

"Jesus." Mary groped in the darkness, trying to answer Him, her heart screaming for mercy and desperate for grace.

"She is ours!" The demons shrieked. "She’s gone too far to be loved!"

His voice answered. "No!"

The chains binding her soul shattered, dropping her breathless and crumpled at His feet. Her body shivered, her heart pounded, and her eyes dared to rise from the dust to His face. He heard her. He found her. He loved her.

Jesus met her gaze and grasped her by the hand, pulling her to her feet. “No.” His word vanquished every shadow. “This one is Mine.” • Anita Seavey

• Today’s story is how one author imagines the day Jesus rescued Mary Magdalene from seven demons. As we can read in the Gospels, Mary followed Jesus after He healed her. How has Jesus revealed God’s love for broken people?

• We are all broken and sinful, and we all need Jesus just as desperately as Mary did. Have you ever felt like you’re too far gone to be loved? To be free? To be whole? What does Jesus say?

But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:4-5 (NLT)