The girl nobody loved...

I am reading this book right now called, "Doris: The Girl Nobody Loved". This biography is based off of the life of a young girl who was rejected by her mother, abandoned, brought to an orphanage where she was abused regularly by the director, and eventually comes to know God's love through a group who comes to the orphanage.

While reading the first chapter, my heart just broke for this girl, who felt so ugly and unloveable. I felt like I just wanted to jump through the pages and wrap her in my arms and tell her that she is loved. I can't understand how someone can choose to not love a child.

This story has reminded me of my first mission trip in college to a children's village for orphans, called Caminul Felix, in Oradea, Romania. It was there that I met a little girl, named Andrea. From day one that girl stole my heart. She was the quiet one who would sit while others played and would smile while the others laughed.

I was instantly drawn to this girl, because I could tell that she had been hurt and needed a friend. As the week went on, I learned that she had been found abandoned in the trash on the side of the road. This sweet little girl had been rejected by the only person she knew, her mother.

Every day in the children's village,  I would look for Andrea and I would talk to her and play with her, even though we didn't speak the same language we understood one another. We would smile, hold hands, play games, and make funny faces to make the other person laugh. The other girls at the children's village would come up to me and ask me, "why do you want to play with her"? Even at the orphanage Andrea could feel the sting of rejection from her peers because she was shy and guarded.

On my second to last day in the village, Andrea said something to me that changed my life. As we were saying goodbye for the evening, she asked me with her head bent down, "Will I ever be as pretty as you"? I was shocked at her question. How could this precious, sweet, and beautiful little girl think that she was ugly. I remember looking at her with tears filling my eyes and saying, "You already are".

This is how I think God looks at His children. We can be so quick to judge ourselves and critique ourselves, that we lose sight of who are in Him. At one point in time or another, we have all given into the lies that we are unbeautiful, unworthy, and unlovable. While all the while, God was watching and pursuing you wishing you could see yourself, the way He sees you...His beautiful and holy child, who is loved. It is this love that moves me to serve and it is this love that I want to share with others.

You see I didn't see Andrea as anything but beautiful from day one, and the fact that she did was so heartbreaking for me. She is one of the reasons I dedicated my life to helping at-risk children.

God doesn't see you as anything, but loveable, worthy, and beautiful, you just have to trust in Him and accept your identity in Him through Christ.