On the World Race, you don’t always get to be exploring the jungles and temples of Burma, evangelising in the mountain villages of Nepal… Sometimes you do humble ministry working in the same place your living, with little kids. Presently and honestly, it doesn’t seem very exciting. I spend three hours doing therapy with special needs kids, and then three hours working with a group of four crazy youngsters who keep us on our toes. We do different things with them from trash pickup, cooking, games, bible study, and teaching English. We have nights and weekends off to spend how we please,which is nice, because when you’ve been cooped up in the same house all week, your ready to get out. We have to cook for ourselves, so 2-3 girls cook up yummy dinner each night in the kitchen, and we all eat together. That’s a typical day for us.
Its not exciting sitting with a group of kids who are mostly immobile and can’t talk to you. Sometimes you wonder what your really doing….
I went to pull out a book from the bookshelf to read to them, and find a familiar cover…a special book my mom used to read to me, called Just In Case You Ever Wonder. And then I pulled out an unfamiliar book, with no cover to judge, just red binding, but God led my hands to this book. It was called, You Are Special. It sounds like just another name for a cheesy kids book, but as I read it, I realized it was different.
Wemmick is a town of carved toy people who give stickers to one another. Stars for talents or honor and dots for mistakes. One guy in particular, Punchinello had a lot of dots. Then he met a girl who had none, neither stars nor dots, and when others tried to stick them on her, they just fell off. He asked how she did it, and she said she visits Eli the toy maker, every day. So he went up to visit him.
Eli called Punchinello by name; he knew his name because he was his maker…the story becomes more obvious now. Punchinello knew that Eli saw all his dots, and he thought all his dots made him a bad toy, but Eli told him that he didn’t care what all the other toys thought, and that Punchinello shouldn’t either, who are they to give stars or dots? What they think doesn’t matter, all that matters is what God, I mean Eli thinks, and he thinks I’m pretty special…
Flash back to reality, I am reading this to a child who can’t speak to me, walk, or do normal things kids should do. My eyes well up with tears, because of the beautiful truth being revealed to both of us. That she is special, and has purpose, the sole reason being that God made her, and she is His, and this is the exact same reason that I am special to him.
We matter to God. This child, we often look down upon because of her fleshly illness, matters to God. He has not forgotten her. She is loved and has purpose in his eyes. To most of the world, she seems forgotten and un-important, but God loved her so much he brought me here to show her His love, and this is what it means to serve the least of these.
The book ends with Eli saying “Remember, you are special because I made you, and I don’t make mistakes.”
Many people would look at Tina and think she was a mistake, or why is she here, what is her purpose? But she isn’t, and she does have purpose, even if we don’t know what that is. She may be stuck with this bodily disability for her short life on earth, but one day she will get a brand new body in heaven and God will be so close he can hug her himself. I tell her this, and she smiles. She smiles whenever I say her name. She smiles a lot. She isn’t letting her disability get her down. When I look at her face, all I see is joy.
God has taught me a lot of things through this experience. Its not glamorous, its not exciting, and at the end of the day I don’t have interesting things to say. Sometimes I get slobbered on, peed on, or even nod off while tossing the ball with Hope for over an hour. But every day I do get to go love on special children with the love that God has shown me. Its humbling and uplifting at the same time.
God speaks to us when we take the time to listen. This month has been a quiet month but God has still used it greatly. I want to share these truths with you. Speak them out loud to yourself. These words have power…
God made me.
God knows me by name.
God doesn’t care what other people think, and neither should I.
I should not compare myself to others.
God thinks I’m special. I am what what my father says I am.
I am His and He loves me so much.
My father does not make mistakes.
I am not forgotten.
I have a purpose.
