Like Gold Refined by Janette Oke

could do,” Virginia finished lamely.
    “And she didn’t know how to love,” Mindy said in almost a whisper. Virginia did not argue the statement.
    “Was that why my other papa didn’t love me? Didn’t he know how to love, either?”
    Virginia took a deep breath. “I know nothing about him.
    I only know that your mama loved him very much.” The statement was meant to assure the young child, but it had the opposite effect.
    “She loved him … but not me?”
    Oh, dear, now I’ve got myself in a corner , mourned Virginia silently. How do I get out of this?
    “Your mama … your mama met your papa at a time when she really needed someone … to love her. She’d had a very bad accident and needed special care. Your papa was the one who … who helped her get better. They learned to love each other … and got married. They … they had a good time … living together … having fun.”
    How could she explain their life to a child? Their way of living and acting that she herself did not begin to understand? “They … they liked to have fun. Go to parties … and things,” she stumbled on.
    “But they didn’t go to church.”
    Virginia was surprised at the child’s perception. She was somehow separating the way her birth parents lived from a life of faith.
    “No. No, they didn’t go to church.”
    “Didn’t they know about God?”
    “Your mama used to go to church … sometimes … with me, when we were growing up.”
    “But she didn’t tell God she was sorry? Didn’t ask Him to forgive her sins?”
    “No. No, she didn’t do that.”
    “We need to pray for her,” said Mindy seriously, concern darkening her eyes.
    “Yes,” replied Virginia, her eyes filling with tears as she drew Mindy up against her aproned front. “We need to pray. We need to continue to pray for your mama. I’ve been praying for … for years.”
    “But we need to pray more than just, ‘God bless Mama Jenny,’ “ went on the girl who had been taught to remember her other mama in her evening prayers along with the rest of the family members on the list.
    “Yes … we need to pray more than that.”
    “Do you pray more than that?”
    “I do.”
    Mindy looked relieved. Virginia’s hand stroked the child’s hair, brushing it back from her forehead. She held her close, the plate pressing awkwardly against her hip bone. For a long moment Mindy snuggled close, then she pushed back.
    “Mama,” she said, her eyes solemn but determined. “It doesn’t matter that Mama Jenny doesn’t love me. I love her anyway.”
    Virginia nearly choked as she stifled her sob. She pressed the child more tightly to her. “I love her, too, honey,” she man? aged to say in spite of her tears. “I always have.”
    Mindy seemed to put the conversation behind her, but her evening prayers from then on were filled with pleading to her God to remember her other mama and to help her to know that she had to say she was sorry for all of the wrong things she had done. Virginia’s heart ached for the child. Was it fair for such a heavy burden to fill such a young heart?
    “Perhaps God will answer her prayer … more quickly than He has mine,” she said to Jonathan one evening as they retired.
    Jonathan looked surprised at her statement. “God has not been ignoring your prayers,” he said quietly.
    Virginia was quick to amend her comment. “I didn’t mean that. It’s just … just that I’ve been praying for Jenny for such a long, long time … and there has been so little happening.”
    “How do you know what’s been happening? On the inside? You haven’t even heard from her … in years. Maybe God is doing terrific things in her life. Even now.”
    Virginia nodded. “Oh, I pray so.”
    But Virginia did not feel reassured. If it’s not already too late , she found herself thinking. I don’t even know if Jenny is still alive .

    “I think I’ve found a woman to stay with the folks.” Belinda sounded excited as she welcomed Virginia and