Were: Regenerated — Thursday
Psalm 139:13
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. (NLT)
Happy Thanksgiving, Southland family! I hope it’s a joyous day filled with loved ones, a ridiculous amount of food, and lots of football!
When I first came on staff at Southland, I had the incredible privilege of serving our Special Needs Ministry. I was beyond excited to start this job, but it was my very first job as a college graduate. Trust me when I say this: I genuinely had zero clue what I was doing. I don’t know why I got hired to do that job. I had zero training and zero expertise when it came to working with adults who have special needs. I think I was hired because there was just a little bit of potential there (emphasis on a little bit).
As I worked more and more with our special needs community here in Lexington, I began to realize a theme: This community is overlooked and largely uncared for. From the time a child is born with special needs, parents are told of the challenges and difficulties. I was unaware of just how much these parents truly sacrifice to care for their children. To put it bluntly, people in the special needs community are often viewed as “less than.”
The question I kept asking myself was, “How does God see [name of person with special needs]? I would ask myself how God saw the different individuals I was tasked to shepherd. I knew that if I could understand how God saw _________ with autism, then I could care for _________ like God cares for them.
One day, the lightbulb went off in my head. We had just baptized a participant in our ministry, and I saw the smile on her face. She felt freedom in Christ. It was in that moment I realized God sees her as His child. He sees the unique way He knitted her together in her mother’s womb. She may be different from me. She may face unique challenges that I don’t face, but she is a child of God.
Thursday’s Reflection
God wants to redeem and restore everyone. Do you know anyone in your life who may be overlooked? Do you know anyone who nobody really has time for? Make it a priority today to go out of your way for that person. Buy them a coffee, pay for their lunch, send a kind text, or simply give them a call.