There are many challenges to raising a special needs child.  For us, it has been especially challenging lately.  Nothing is more challenging than trying to teach your special needs child about God.  My wife and I have always had our doubts about what he is actually absorbing.  This afternoon my wife showed me something that truly encouraged me about the state of my son’s heart.

A small book that simply says “People” on the front of it.  Inside I found this page:

On that page was Scotty’s name and the name of a young lady he apparently thinks very highly of. I’ve removed her name to spare her embarrassment.  If you can’t read the writing in the picture it says, “Me and <name deleted> like to talk about people around the Modesto to believe in God.  Jesus died on the cros.”  Now, despite the grammar and misspellings, can there be any doubt about Scotty’s heart?  He wants to partner with this young lady and spread the gospel.  And who are the people he wants to talk to about God? 

Everyone…

Quite literally, everyone he has ever known.  These are all the people he hopes to see in heaven.  He has even started to develop a means to communicate with them about Christ:

A catechism book!  If you can’t read it the title is, “The Catechism For Young Children and Hige School Boys And Girls and Colleges Boys And Girls With Cartoons”  On his own he has been studying two simple catechism booklets that were handed out by our church a few years ago.  He is going to recreate those booklets and apparently update them for high school and college folks.  With cartoons no less.  Sounds like a winner to me!  As he does this project I’m going to go through the catechism with him and try to help him understand the concepts if he doesn’t already.

As our church moves into a month of expanding awareness of evangelism, I find it budding in my own home.   What some count as weakness may actually be strength beyond comprehension.  Time will tell.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

Just when we think we’ve got live dialed in, God throws a curve ball.  Just to keep us on our toes mind you.  All that sanctification and such.  The latest curve ball is some weirdness at work and some weirdness at home.  I’m using euphemisms because they are things I wouldn’t wish on any one but the point is they are out of the ordinary.  We’ve been blessed by these events in that they have driven us back to God.

One of the events involved simply being the parent of a child with Autism.  Mrs Flying Deacon ran across this article which really nails what it’s like to be the parent of a child with Autism.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

http://specialneedslifeboat.com/beirut.aspx

My wife knows and understands me.  She knows my inner struggles.  She knows all my weak points and my shortcomings but like Christ, she loves me unconditionally.  I received the following quote by J. R. Miller from her today:

It would be a great deal safer, in one sense, for believers to be taken at once to heaven as soon as they begin to follow Christ. They would then have no temptations, no enemies to fight, no conflicts and struggles to pass through. But who would then do Christ’s work in the world? There would be none to tell sinners about the Saviour, none to show to men the beauty of Christ in a holy life, none to witness for God and to fight His battles.

There is another reason why Christians are left here. They are not the most majestic trees that grow in the sheltered valleys, where no storms break, but those rather which are found upon the hill-tops and on the mountains, where they must encounter the fierce gales. It is so with men: the noblest are grown amid difficulties and hardships, not in pampered ease. Even Jesus himself was trained in the school of conflict and struggle. It may be the easiest thing to have no battles in life, to grow in some sheltered plain where the storms never blow, to meet no hardships, to have no burdens to carry; but what sort of life comes in the end from such a career? If we would reach the heights of blessedness we must be content to pass through the fields of struggle.

When armies return from victorious war, the loudest cheers are not for those who have fought the fewest battles, nor for the flags which are cleanest, but for the regiments which are cut down to a few men, and for the colours that are shot to pieces. So it will be in heaven when the redeemed are welcomed home: those who have fought the most battles, and bear the most "marks of the Lord Jesus," will receive the highest honors. It is better, then, even for Christians themselves to stay in this world, and to grow to strength through duty and conflict.

Thank you, my love.  You know just what I need, just when I need it.  You are a blessing.

Just when you think you have it made the adversary can sneak up and blindside you.  I’ve been fighting a particular sin issue.  I keep running this speech through my head…

Hold your ground – hold your ground! Sons of Gondor – of Rohan . . . my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. The day may come when the courage of Men fails; when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship; but it is not this day – an hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the Age of Man comes crashing down – but it is not this day!!! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth – I bid you stand!

I wonder why I’m trying to take heart from a speech by a fictional character in a movie when I have the greatest heroes of all in Scripture who have faced far worse than Aragorn ever did.  The speech I need to keep in my head is…

Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you may go.

This day and every day.  His courage will never fail, and of His reign there will be no end.  He is my help and my salvation, my rock, my shield.