Redo?

Do you ever face a situation and wonder, " What is God trying to tell me here? " ?

As some of you know, I adopted four Russian orphans back in the 1990's, whom are now all adults, some with their own families now.

God led me to try and help the daughter of a friend, and well , yeah, that one went very badly.  Though the book is not closed, except in her mind.

Then God brought my "niece" along and she accomplished what daughter tried to do.  I am so terribly proud of her.

Yet, before all of them was a young Welsh girl whom came to me for help and legally there was nothing I could to help her other than be a mentor, much as I did with daughter in her earlier years.  And, she faded away into the black hole of culture, so adept at consuming innocence.

And tonight, I had a message from her on facebook, asking if I would be willing to meet with her .....  Is this a redo from God?  A chance to correct a mistake I may have made decades ago by not filling in for her one (mostly missing) parent?  I felt tremendous guilt at the time because I did the "right thing" and rebuffed her approaches, turned her to other women in the church, asked for prayer and did what I thought was right.  But, what happens when all drop the ball?  It happened to her, it happened to my daughter, it happened to my niece.

When the family fails, when the church  fails, when the individual believer fails - someone has to pick up the pieces and it will either be an ill prepared servant trying to do the right thing or someone from the culture preying upon the  young.

She is a part of the burden I have carried for decades.  The knowledge I could have at least tried but allowed others to talk me out of a Christian duty which then went unanswered by anyone.

Of course, now that I think on it, I had just been shafted by a foster child, when this Welsh girl came along.  So, it was a might easy to not do the right thing.  Just as daughter played with my head and made it easy not to do the right thing for my niece....

I can still see the torment in my niece's eyes as she tried to express her frustrations to me/ with me - when I knew all along but had done nothing and that was wrong of me.

Perhaps something the Christian Church needs to relearn, as I did: if you can not make yourself vulnerable - at risk - for others, then you never will reach the lost and hurting.  You and your faith have just become worthless.....