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Hope for True Belonging
I scanned the church platform as the children started their annual Christmas performance. Although my son Caleb had been practicing along with his classmates each week, he was nowhere to be seen. Concerned, I headed to the classroom and found Caleb sitting in his wheelchair. I asked the volunteer why he wasn’t singing with the other children. She told me that Caleb’s teacher thought it best for him to stay in the room, because he didn’t need to participate. Her response hurt. It was disappointing to realize that though my son Caleb, with his muscular dystrophy and autism, was present each week in class, in the heart of his teacher, he didn’t belong.
Even religious communities are imperfect in showing love and acceptance. When Jesus encountered the blind man in John 9:1-3, he quickly corrected the poor theology that had led to the man’s rejection. The assumption was that the man’s disability was either the result of his sin or the sin of his parents. Years of isolation and loneliness ended as Jesus declared that the man’s disability was not a result of sin; rather, it happened so that God’s power and glory could be revealed.
Today, someone around you with a disability needs to know that their paralysis, Down syndrome, autism, or other form of disability is part of God’s plan for their life. And this is something you can help with. You can help them begin to understand that they truly belong to a community—the body of Christ.