For Every Foster and Adoptive Parent Who’s Worn Thin—Good Friday Is for You

Listen, I don’t have to tell you the world is broken—you’ve seen it up close.

You’ve seen it in the thousand-yard stare of a child who’s learned not to trust.
In the CPS reports stacked higher than hope.
In the tantrum that’s really a battle cry.

And if you’re parenting a child who’s walked through pain, then you’re walking through it too.

As a foster/adoptive parent, you’ve learned that:

You can’t love them without bleeding a little.
That your job is to absorb grief you didn’t cause and sit in pain you can’t fix.

I know. I know. It’s beautiful and sacred and kingdom-building work—but it’s also relentless. And isolating. And just so much.

So if you’re wondering what a Roman cross 2,000 years ago has to do with the chaos in your house, the ache in your heart, and the trauma tangled in your child’s story?

The answer is: everything.

1. Good Friday means Jesus understands.

We don’t serve a Savior Who hovers above the mess, shaking His head in pity (Hebrews 4:15).

We serve Jesus, Who entered it. Who was:

betrayed by His friends.
mocked by the crowds.
crushed by injustice.
alone in His agony.

He knows what it’s like to pour out everything for someone and be met with rejection.

He knows what it’s like to stay when it would be so much easier to run. And He knows what it’s like to love to the very end.

He’s not just aware of your pain—He’s in it with you.

2. Good Friday means God will not waste your suffering.

One of the most audacious things about our faith is this: nothing gets wasted.

Not the sleepless nights. Not the slammed doors. And not the ache in your child’s story or the wreckage it leaves in your heart. None of it. God scoops up every shattered piece and says, “Watch what I can do with this” (Romans 8:28).

If God—Who loved His only begotten Son—could look at the death of Jesus on the Cross and call it Good, then what do you think He can’t redeem in your life?

That same God is still in the business of redemption.
He’s still writing stories where brokenness becomes beauty.

And you’re still in the messy middle of the good story He’s writing for you.

3. Good Friday means God will give you what you need.

The fact that God didn’t hold back Jesus—means He already gave you the hardest, most precious, most extravagant gift He could give.

So why would He draw the line at grocery money?
Or IEP meetings?
Or strength for one more difficult conversation?

“He Who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” —Romans 8:32

Good Friday means you don’t have to manufacture the strength, and you don’t have to have the perfect words, the perfect plan, or the perfect outcome.

You just need to keep showing up. Keep being obedient.

So how does Good Friday change your story?

It isn’t just a date on the Church calendar. It’s a stake in the ground that says: Love suffers, love stays, and love wins.

And the same God Who didn’t hold back Jesus isn’t holding back on you now.

Good Friday means you can keep going—not because you’re perfect, but because He is. And He’s already made a way through the worst of it.