Reconciliation

My mind has been flooded with new ideas this past week that I have
never before explored. I began my first couple units of CASA (court
appointed special advocates) on Tuesday and through the training
process, my heart for at-risk children and youths has been even more
inspired. Before this experience I never once gave enough thought to
foster care, the child welfare system, or anything else of that sort.
Learning about the dire needs of these foster children, I felt God
guiding me to have a closer look into their hearts. Although they may
have been abused and neglected by their parents, they still long for a
relationship with them. That reminded me of how we were created and
meant for relationships. But being in an institution all their lives,
many suffer the loss of meaningful relationships. Judges, social
workers, therapists, foster parents, and teachers - these are all
people that care for them, but unfortunately they do not remain as
consistent relationships.

The important thing for me to realize is that even though I am not a
foster child, neither abandoned nor deeply hurt by my family, I am a
human being and I have a deep emptiness as long as God is not present
in my life. As a part of training, a teen who had been through the
foster care system shared her experience of having been assigned a
CASA volunteer the past two years of her life. She explained how just
by having someone there that she was able to learn to grow to trust
and love made the biggest difference in her life. Although life was
constantly changing and moving, she felt that her relationship with
her CASA was and will remain unchanging. Those last few words trails
my thoughts to the unconditional and unchanging love that God has for
us, and the reconciliation and intimacy that He desires for us with
him and with one another.

-Madison Hur