Resilience

It’s after 10pm and only one of our six girls is here tonight. All the others are on weekend pass for the Labor Day holiday. Some girls, however, will be coming back tomorrow evening, and the others will straggle in Monday and Tuesday (no school Tuesday). So it’s quiet in the house.
The girl that is here is downstairs asleep on some pillows, with the TV blaring next to her. I didn’t wake her, preferring instead to let her be. It has to be tough to be a teen girl and live in a group home because you know that Mom and Dad don’t want you in their home.
Shana (not her real name) is a good girl with a few issues, but none that would normally warrant her being here. But her family situation is not good, and she now is staying with us. That’s also why Shana is the only one left to spend the holiday with us. I really don’t know how she manages to keep her sense of humor and good-natured attitude. I think someone once said that the word resilient described people like this.
Young people especially seem to have an extra amount of resilience in their systems. God seemed to know that not everyone would take kindly to children or treat them with respect. Jesus particularly was incensed one day when his disciples shooed away parents wanting to come to Jesus so he could bless their children.
“The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: “Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.” Mark 10:13-16 The Message
How can we possibly read that account and not shudder in our shoes when we think of all of the children that have been abused, neglected, and abandoned? Many adults will have a day of reckoning coming if not in this life, in the life to come.
Yes, resilience is certainly necessary and a great gift of God. It has helped untold millions of children grow into relatively functional, mature adults. But it would be infinitely better if resilience could be used in situations less horrid than child abuse, neglect, or abandonment..