Driving home from a visit with our foster child’s mother, I was surprised when five-year-old Emily told me that her mother was going to “get another baby.” I was quite sure that if that were true, I would have been told, and so I said nothing. Emily seemed to think that it explained why she could no longer be with her mother, The reality was that her mother had an abusive boy friend who stayed with Emily while Mom was at work. It had been discovered when Emily entered kindergarten, and she had since been sent to two different shelters before she came to us.

“Another baby” was the only explanation the little girl could imagine for why she was separated from the one secure and loving person in her life. The loneliness and emptiness of her small life became evident in a moment, and the desolation of that thought struck me as I was driving.

All I could think to say was, “Emily, when a mother has another child, she loves that child very much, so much that her love for the first child doesn’t become smaller, but really becomes even bigger. She opens her heart to both her children an extra large amount.” Emily was quiet and I hoped then and even now, that it helped her.

“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged’” (Hebrews 13:5) The bedrock of the Christian faith is the certainty of God’s faithfulness to us, even when we have been unfaithful: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)

When we’re immersed in faithlessness, injustice, scandals and distortions of many kinds, it is hard to hear the voice of One who promises faithfulness rooted in love. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange–I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts.” (2 Corinthians 6:12).

Emily’s mother was not, in fact, pregnant, but it became increasingly clear that she would not be given custody of her daughter. Emily’s biological father visited and wanted custody, which he and his new wife were granted. Emily’s new stepmother opened wide her heart to this little girl, and one day when Emily returned from a visit with them, she said to me, “I had a good time! Now I have THREE mamas!” I was glad to hear it, and felt sure that she was ready to l leave us.

The Lord is faithful to His promises and this one He repeats in both the Old and the New Testaments, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”

Love in Him, Prue