by Marla Taylor
Billy stood outside my office with tears streaming down his face. “This is the end of the road for me, isn’t it?”
The 16 year old had his hat pulled low on his head and his countenance completely sunk.
“I am getting kicked out, aren’t I? I am doomed,” he said as he walked in and fell into the beanbag chair in front of me.
He had been in our older youth program for over a year and had bright plans, but something broke him. MBCH was the first place he felt cared for since entering foster care, the place where people saw something other than his hard history or his statistical future. He made a mistake—one bad choice. He felt the pain of failure, but this was not the end.
I looked past the mounded teen to a picture on the wall—Jesus running through the woods to pick up a lamb sitting in the mud. He left the 99 to go after the one. He was not doomed.
In February, I sat with other MBCH Children and Family Ministries staff praying over youth and the campus. We recounted stories of who God is in our lives. The two or three word testimonies filled the room—My redeemer, He set me free, He loved me, He accepted me, He rewrote my story. We talked about the reasons we serve at MBCH and how Christ came to seek and save the lost.
Staff held puzzle pieces in their hands, praying that God would work in every piece of the puzzle of our youths’ lives, as well as ours. Staff did not know the pieces they held formed the picture of Jesus going after the lamb in the mud.
Paul reminds us in Romans that we have been declared righteous through the work of Christ in our lives—we stand in grace and rejoice in the hope of His glory. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
We are the lamb found, picked up, cleaned up, and held in His arms. We are not abandoned, not destroyed. He came to give us life and life abundant.
God was not done with Billy—he was the lamb in the mud Jesus was coming for. He brought hope into the dark situation and rewrote his story. God had already put the pieces together to fill the holes in Billy’s heart.
From tears in a beanbag chair, to high school graduation, success in his first job, a marriage, and fatherhood—the messages of hope, healing, and Christ came through in every step.
For older youths in foster care, they are searching for a place and a people. They want to be accepted, respected, and supported. They want to see a reason to hope. They want to be loved.
Every day we get the opportunity to see God work—to take the one lamb and rewrite their story—for us to stand in grace and rejoice in the hope of His glory.
Marla Taylor serves as the program director for MBCH Children & Family Ministries.