Jesus Is A Girl's Best Friend

I could hardly believe it.

I was driving north on my way to the bookstore when I stopped at the stop sign and saw a tiny teenaged girl sitting on the ground at the intersection.  I rolled down my window, and asked her if she was okay.

"No.  I've been walking for four hours trying to get away from my dad.  He hit me across the face, and I need to get home."

She had no coat, and her lips were blue so I told her to get in.

Yes.  My heart was pounding.

I let her use my cell phone as we drove to the bookstore.  Call your mom.  Call your grandma.  Call your grandpa.

"Somebody come and get me!"

When she wouldn't let me talk to them, The Spirit was talking to me.  Nudging.

So I took her through the drive-thru at McDonalds, and I was suddenly so thankful for The Boy.  I know now that even liars need a Happy Meal once in a while.  Everyone needs love.  Period.

I kept my voice low and quiet, even as I trembled inside.

Divine appointments.

God put her in my car.  Safe from danger, but not safe from the Hound of Heaven, and friends...

I gave it all I had because...

Jesus is the only friend worth having when all the chips have been cashed in, and your parents have sent you away, and you find yourself sitting in the dirt by a stop sign shivering cold at a busy intersection.

God intersects us.

I grabbed the phone away from her when it rang again, and the police told me where to meet them.  Asked me not to tell her so she wouldn't run again, and I prayed she wouldn't bail out of the car while we were moving.

Don't bail, Honey.

She said, "I guess I'll go to jail now."

She looked frail and frightened when I told her the honest truth. "Jesus will find you even in jail.  This I know.  He loves to set captives free, and darling, you are so caught.  Ask and see if He won't.  You want out of here, don't you?"

One tear and a nod.  "Feels like I've been forgotten by everyone."

"Jesus will never leave you or forsake you, and you know, don't you, that those words are true?  You know it somewhere in there?  Under all the junk of what your life has been so far?  He is the way and the truth and the life.  You are precious to Him."

The police came to the car.  HappyMeal and Coke.  Little tiny teenager.

She looked at me, but couldn't say thank you.  Why would she?

I looked back at her and said, "I'll never forget you, and I will pray for you for the rest of my life, do you here me?  I will never forget you."

She looked fragile walking away, and I longed to pick her up and hold her in my arms, but I stuck to my errand of going to the bookstore.  Started up a conversation with Jesus along the way, and took my prayers boldly into the throne room and up onto the alter.

Because... this world is full of girls with out good daddies and mommies.  This world is full of grown up little girls with hearts broken because nobody told them the truth about Jesus.  Nobody shared the good news of the gospel that no matter how dark the pit, the Light has overcome it.  Nobody ever explained forgiveness, grace, mercy and the blood.  Nobody gave them a Bible and told them it was God's Word.

Nobody ever told them about Jesus.  This Jesus.

A Girl's Best Friend,

Bernadette