The Volunteer Who Spoke for Child Number 4617

In the family courthouse of Jefferson County, Alabama, a retired schoolteacher named Dorothy Vance sits on a wooden bench every Tuesday morning. She is a CASA volunteer — a Court Appointed Special Advocate — assigned to speak for children in foster care who have no one else to speak for them.

Dorothy does not raise her voice. She does not pound tables or make dramatic closing arguments. She arrives early, reviews her notes, and when the judge calls on her, she says things like, "Your Honor, this child has been moved four times in eleven months. She keeps her shoes on at night because she never knows when she'll have to leave."

The child Dorothy represents is listed in court documents only as Case Number 4617. But Dorothy knows her name, her favorite book, the name of the stuffed rabbit she carries everywhere. She noticed the girl flinches when adults raise their voices. She noticed the girl hums to herself when she is afraid.

Isaiah describes the Servant of the Lord as one who "will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out." This is not weakness. This is the most powerful kind of strength — the kind that bends low enough to see what everyone else has overlooked. God's justice does not arrive with a battering ram. It arrives the way Dorothy arrives: quietly, faithfully, knowing the name that the system reduced to a number.