I was recently speaking with an acquaintance of mine and he shared something I would like to share with you. This gentleman is my doctor and his daughter is a schoolmate of my daughter. His daughter is a grade ahead of mine in a performing arts program at one of our local high schools, both sing and act. I had gone to see him about my shoulder but I am also being treated for depression and he wanted to check how I was doing with the medicine. He asked if there was anything that was stressful in my life. So I shared with him that we were having some psychological testing done for my younger daughters, they have developmental delays and we needed some guidance regarding an issue regarding them. So I shared this and he told me his daughter, my daughter's schoolmate, has Asperger syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. I was completely shocked. I know that Asperger kids are highly intelligent and that the condition ranges from mild to severe in how it affects a child. But this girl gets on stage and sings and acts, she is very, very talented and has very few signs of any special needs. He shared with me that she has struggled most of her school life for acceptance and understanding. Then he told me this story.
When my daughter was in preschool we were working on shapes. She had a list of shapes that she had to find real life examples of. She had found all but the diamond. She kept insisting that she had them all and try as hard as I could I could not convince her that she didn't have a diamond. With tears of frustration in her eyes, she turned the square on its point. See daddy it's just like me a diamond in a square world.
So I put the question to you, what do you see when you look at others? Do you see preconceived ideas based on the labels we place on people? When you see my children with their delays and paralysing anxiety, that leaves them unable to speak to you, what do you see? Defects, those poor girls? Or do you see beautiful children, made in God's image, knit together in their mothers womb according to God's design? How about race, or financial status? What about religion? When you see some one who is Muslim do you assume they are violent,evil ? That seems to be the current belief in society. Please take the time to get to know people, you might find out there is much more to them than you imagined. And I know you will learn that God loves them as much as He loves you.
