-- started this in feb, just fixed it up --
Rest day is a day of providing rest to the parents of disabled children. Our d-team (high-school girls group I help lead) served. I had such an awesome group of kids and it was a lot of fun- a truly humbling experience. I worked with two little boys who were twins… they were so quick to trust and hold hands and sit on my lap. One on each leg- it was quite a workout for me! Their closeness to me was very surprising, I will say I totally was not expecting it and it caught me off guard… I love the way children challenge us to trust and see the good in all people.
Our group also had other children, one boy who was blind and not developed mentally… another little girl who was the sibling of a volunteer… but the kid who stuck out most to me was Max (I changed it because I don’t want talk about him online without his parents permission).
Max has KIDs syndrome which meant he had a skin deficiency and was deaf. Max did have cochlear implants so that he could hear a little, but not very well. He had no hair really either but this little thing had such an amazing spirit! I didn’t notice him until the rumble room- this was where the kids could just run around and kick balls and jump on things. That is where I saw his joy exude—the way he ran around and found such fun in everything and loved it all- he played with whoever was closest by- he didn’t regard anyone as a “better or worse playmate”…. he was so eager to have fun- he would laugh and squeal with excitement!
It made me think of what I had prayed earlier- praying that if God wanted He could heal them all immediately but he has a unique and definite purpose in the way he designed us all. I started thinking how different Max would be if he were just “normal”. He would have a lot less joy- he would have been so much calmer and more aware of how he was being perceived by the other kids and the volunteers…. Of everything!
It made me think about Christians as followers of God and how something the world sees as a handicap is actually more freeing. A lot of people look at Christianity and sees rules that “restrict” and “handicap” you from living a “happy life” but we live a much freer life instead- free to live it as it was intended and free from sin through forgiveness in Christ. It was the same way with Max… we see a handicap but to him it isn’t at all- it is who he is. He has so much joy in who he was designed to be and therefore in everything around him…. The limits he has don’t hold him back but they free him to a much greater joy than a lot of us experience because we become to aware of what others think. We can look at Max’s as an example of how to live our own lives as followers of Christ. Embrace who you are and find joy in what you have, not in what you lack; live out that joy in Christ without fear of judgment from men- God is your judge; don’t waste time figuring out what other people are thinking or doing, be yourself because you are beautiful! Though we seemed disabled we are so much freer that we could ever be without Christ’s sacrifice!
Thank you for how you uniquely designed each of us- and help us live out our faith boldly and freely!
