The Biggest Bailout

 

For which of you,

intending to build a tower,

sitteth not down first,

and counteth the cost,

whether he have sufficient to finish it?

— Luke 14:28

             

 

Everybody's ranting and raving about the financial crisis and the big, unfair bailout. Well, let's not forget that there's no situation our Great Bail Bondsman in the Sky can't work out for our good. Here's a story right on point, from a friend of mine:

 

She's the mother of two, a hard-working and successful person. But she revealed something that you would never guess, and she admits that she has been jolted a lot recently by the news reports about another kind of bailout, Nebraska's new "safe haven" law that allows parents to abandon their children without prosecution.

 

Why should that bother her? Because as a child, SHE was abandoned by HER mother, over and over and over. It went on for years, and nobody ever bailed HER out. And yet everything turned out all right in her life. So maybe we should take heart.

 

Here's what happened:

 

            Apparently, there had been some marital strife, because nine months before her birth, her mother was in a bar alone on a Saturday night. She met a guy, went home with him, and . . . well, she says she was raped.

 

            Her husband found out the little girl wasn't his. He became enraged, and left the family. Who did the mother blame? The little girl. My friend.

 

            Time again and again, the mother would drive to an orphanage, jerk her inside, throw a few possessions after her, and shout something like, "I never wanted you in the first place!" Her car would lay scratch out of the parking lot, an angry, stabbing sound that still plays in my friend's head sometimes.

 

The orphanage would calmly call an aunt or an uncle to come and pick her up within the hour. The mother would soon be filled with remorse, take her back and try to smooth things over, 'til the next episode . . . and the wounds were deep, the confusion overwhelming.

 

            When my friend was 14, on the last day of school, when she should have been joyful and carefree, she came home to this note on the door of her locked house:

 

I've gone to Florida

with _____ (boyfriend).

You can take care of yourself.

Have a good summer!

 

 

It was as if she had been shot dead through the heart. But she found the strength to walk to a friend's house, and the friend's mom agreed to take her in for the summer.

 

Over the next few years, her caring relatives died. She was forced to emancipate herself. She struggled to get a GED. She missed out on college, a wedding day, lots of things the rest of us would consider the birthright of the average American girl.

 

But here's the incredible thing:

 

Though she never took a dollar of welfare, never stole, never went into foster care, never pled bankruptcy, and never worked the system as a "victim," she says she got a bailout after all . . . because of her faith in Jesus Christ.

 

"In so many ways, I see how He was there for me, helping me, arranging for ways out for me, bringing people who could help me into my life," she says. "He never let me down."

 

Miraculously, she says she is grateful now that she had a tough childhood, because it made her resolve to be a better person, a better mother, a more responsible citizen.

 

And miraculously, she and her mom are getting along OK today, because of the daughter's obedience to God's commandment that we must forgive, no matter what.

 

She puts it simply:

 

Jesus was her bailout.

 

Jesus was her safe haven.

 

Her story is inspiring as we face the many problems and challenges in our society, and ponder what we should do about those who got greedy and messed up so badly, into the hundreds of billions of dollars. No matter what happens, let's pray that we do what it takes to shape our financial system so that it follows God's rules and God's ways in the future.

 

No, the perpetrators of the current scandal don't deserve a bailout, a safe haven, a fresh start.

 

But then, neither did my friend . . . and neither do any of us.

 

So let's remember that, and look to Him to lead the way until those of us who believe get the biggest bailout of them all: eternal life! †