The Big "What If?"
My mom works in a lab at big hospital in Fullerton. Every Thursday a group of teenage girls from the local group home come in to get tested for drugs, STD's, pregnancy... the whole shebang. I told my mom to be really nice to these girls because one of them could be my baby's mama.
That was a fun-scary-sobbering-exciting-close-to-home thought. I'm sure my mom was super thrilled to think about it like that. :) Thankfully, I know my mom will lean on the verse that she taught me as a child, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." John 14:27
We know that whatever child we care for will be coming from a majorly less than ideal situation. If a baby is in foster care it's not that the mother is choosing to put it there, it's that the state is taking the baby away. And if the fostering leads to adoption, which is our hope, then the reasons why parental rights have been revoked completely are usually pretty bad, and heartbreaking.
One of the neat things about this program is the involvement Mark and I will have with the birth mom and/or dad. This idea used to scare the pants off me! But what if we meet with them, for months we meet, and go through the gamut of junk in their lives with them, and we love them the way Christ loves us, and they learn about Jesus and the work He did on the cross? What if they repent and commit their lives to living and loving the way Christ did? What if their entire family tree is altered for the rest of eternity because of it?? (Kris Franklin is probably DYING right now... shaking her had at my naive idealism.) I know it sounds radical, but I'm just going to call it hopeful. Don't we all deserve the hope of Heaven? Doesn't everyone, even the moms who can't kick the habit and the dads who can't keep their pants zipped, deserve to know that God created them, and created them for more? I believe they do. I pray that I will never wash my hands of a sinner (of which I am one) and say, "They're hopeless." I get that there are consequences for actions, children need to be safe, but that's when I get to trust fully in the work of the Holy Spirit and know that God can redeem and restore ANY sinner... just like He did for me.
I get it, that situation will most likely not happen.
But what if it did???
That was a fun-scary-sobbering-exciting-close-to-home thought. I'm sure my mom was super thrilled to think about it like that. :) Thankfully, I know my mom will lean on the verse that she taught me as a child, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." John 14:27
We know that whatever child we care for will be coming from a majorly less than ideal situation. If a baby is in foster care it's not that the mother is choosing to put it there, it's that the state is taking the baby away. And if the fostering leads to adoption, which is our hope, then the reasons why parental rights have been revoked completely are usually pretty bad, and heartbreaking.
One of the neat things about this program is the involvement Mark and I will have with the birth mom and/or dad. This idea used to scare the pants off me! But what if we meet with them, for months we meet, and go through the gamut of junk in their lives with them, and we love them the way Christ loves us, and they learn about Jesus and the work He did on the cross? What if they repent and commit their lives to living and loving the way Christ did? What if their entire family tree is altered for the rest of eternity because of it?? (Kris Franklin is probably DYING right now... shaking her had at my naive idealism.) I know it sounds radical, but I'm just going to call it hopeful. Don't we all deserve the hope of Heaven? Doesn't everyone, even the moms who can't kick the habit and the dads who can't keep their pants zipped, deserve to know that God created them, and created them for more? I believe they do. I pray that I will never wash my hands of a sinner (of which I am one) and say, "They're hopeless." I get that there are consequences for actions, children need to be safe, but that's when I get to trust fully in the work of the Holy Spirit and know that God can redeem and restore ANY sinner... just like He did for me.
I get it, that situation will most likely not happen.
But what if it did???
Comments
Love you! mom