Sunday, September 22, 2013

Unexpected Blessings

My beautiful sister in Christ, Grace, sent me this unexpected blessing this past week.  So precious how our Great Redeemer weaves our stories together....

"Is this your son?"

These are words that strike anxiety into the ear of any Mom with special needs kids.  Most of the time, if these words, "Is this your child?",  are spoken, we know that it does not mean the speaker is going to say something positive, like, "my, what a pretty girl" or "oh, what a well behaved boy."  We know, we just know, that our child did something and that something cannot be good.

So when I walked back into the children's section of the library where my son with Down's Syndrome was picking out books and was faced with that dreaded question, my mother heart sank.

The speaker was an older woman, possibly a librarian.  She had been talking animatedly to a young Hispanic woman who was holding onto a stroller.

"Is this your son?"

"Yes."

"This lady here," indicating the younger woman with the stroller, "thought I was Mom.  She has a lot of questions."

I looked, really looked at the baby in the stroller.  Oh.  The slightly slanting eyes created by that extra chromosome.  A sweet little smile. 

Not a sword, a blessing.

I spent some time talking to this dear young mother who was still struggling to learn English and now struggling with a special needs child.  We exchanged phone numbers and planned to meet for coffee.

Not a sword, an opportunity.

I will still have plenty of days when that question, "Is that your son?" does mean my child was crawling under stalls in the men's restroom or decided to play dead in the middle of King Soopers, or one of the many other embarrassments we learn to grin over instead of cry.

But my unexpected meeting at the library reminded me of the many ways God reaches through our special children.  Using my son, God opened a door to bless another and hopefully share His light. 

Not a sword, a part of God's plan.



 
"I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 
Jeremiah 29:11