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This has been a long , draining week . We have program audits and summer preparations , grant reporting and daily operations , fires to put out with staff and members and the Board ... all the normal pieces that go into the job . However on top of all that , this past week two dear family friends passed away on consecutive days . This season has been full of tears and questions and reflection . Scott was almost 60 and had been battling with MS for around 20 years . Sarah was almost 22 and , due to complications around her birth , had been profoundly disabled for her entire life . News about their rapidly deteriorating health came across Facebook and for each of them I found myself in the same place ... not sure of how to pray . Was the faithful response to pray for their healing and survival or was it to pray that God would release them from their suffering and welcome them into eternity ? I found that as I thought about Sarah ' s passing I felt such sorrow for her family ' s loss ... and I felt such joy for her as she was finally free of her broken body , able to run and laugh and see and sing for her Creator . Both feelings brought tears . Both memorials were packed . The community poured out love and support for the families of these two remarkable individuals and I was struck by their immense impact . Scott and Sarah , both wheelchair-bound for decades , inspired stories of love and |
laughter and hope and support . How does that happen ? How do people who are so completely dependent on others for their own survival become so deeply entrenched in other people ' s hearts ? I love teaching Bible Studies . I love walking through Scripture with people and helping them discover who God is and what He is like . I tell the Bible Study Leaders that I train that studying scripture can be like meeting Jesus Face to Face . I am coming to believe that spending time with the disabled and crippled can be like meeting Jesus Heart to Heart . In many cases they possess a simple heart that loves quickly and reflects their heavenly Father . There is an internal purity that is often disguised by the awkwardness and brokenness of their body . The Heart of God is also on display in the parable of their lives . It is easy to romanticize the life of the disabled and God ' s love of the weak and the broken if you are not the ones who are taking care of them . The bills , the back -breaking work of moving them , the sleepless nights , the medications and operations , the countless prayers for healing that never came . The lives of my dear friends have been full of long-term struggle and isolation as they have cared for their loved ones . And it is not the hard work that ends in a promotion or a scholarship , it is literally the labor of love . The work that one person invests for another because their hearts |
beat together . This selfsacrificing love is the very picture of the love the Father has for all of us . It is a love that holds nothing back , even when we are unable to give anything in return . For everyone watching , it is a picture of patience and affection , strength and endurance , joy and the hope of a better eternity . A better example of evangelism I have never seen . I mourn for my friends who have lost a piece of their hearts from this world . I rejoice for my brother and sister who now run wildly throughout heaven . I am grateful for Scott and for Sarah and for all the other people who God has placed in my life who are disabled or crippled or atypical . I am grateful for the opportunity to approach the Heart of God by learning from those whom the world would cast aside . May God grant us eyes to see . |
James Menaker Fairbanks , Alaska joelsplacealaska . com
“ I am coming to believe that spending time with the disabled and crippled can be like meeting Jesus Heart
to Heart . “
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