Madonna and Child

Sometimes it's hard not to feel awe. Like I'm in the presence of something holy. I felt that today. In Michigan for the Focus conference I did the keynote and then a session on relationships and sexuality. I left a half hour for questions in the relationship section and a woman put up her hand. She was worried about her child's shyness getting in the way of forming relationships. She felt that her child wanted to form relationships but had been rebuffed often due to her difficulty with communicating.

You could hear her concern. It was in every word.

You could see her desire to help her child. It was in every gesture.

I asked a couple questions and more of her story poured out. Her child had FAS and had been placed in foster care after her birthmother had tried to drown her in a bathtub. She stayed in foster care for 6 years and then was adopted by this woman. The story was not told to shock or to impress, it was told as background information. She wanted her child to continue to grow and develop. She was excelling academically - against all odds and all predictions, but socially she was falling behind.

I gave a couple of ideas, lame ones I knew, but the question was too big, too hard and there are too few resources.

We spoke briefly afterwards, mother and I. Her manner was one of such calm. Peace radiated out from her. As she spoke of her child you knew that, though the child came to her at six - she was that girls mom. Love, absolute love and concern filled every word that she spoke of her child.

I felt in the presence of something quite sacred.

A mother's love for a child.

That little girl had such a rough start. From womb to six her life had been one of abuse and abandonment. How had this woman standing before me come into her life? What kind of miracle had these paths cross? Who makes this kind of person? What part of God's factory puts out luxury model souls - souls that seat more than one.

A little bit of her peace has stayed with me all day.

From a bathtub where someone tried to drown a little girl in water she rose ... baptised into a new life with a new mom.

I am deeply thankful today for being reminded that in even the darkest world, it is possible for light to shine.