Wonderfully Made

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

Psalm 139:14

THE CALL FROM JESSE’S TEACHER came out of the blue. No matter what she tried, she said, Jesse would not—could not?—complete his work. He wasn’t being ugly or disrespectful. He was simply taking forever to get anything done. His dad wound up spending time at school, observing so that he and the teacher could figure out what to do next.

Jesse has Asperger’s syndrome. It’s been a wild ride to say the least. But then there are moments like this one: Not long after the incident at school, Jesse came home from his weekly piano lesson with a book of Tchaikovsky compositions. Within minutes, he was playing the intro to the “Nutcracker March” almost perfectly.

Jesse has left his parents scratching their heads more than once, but they also know that there are other parents of special-needs children who have greater challenges than they do. Although Jesse isn’t wired like a lot of other people, he’s otherwise perfectly healthy. How can his parents complain when he’s able to walk, talk, and tell the silly jokes he loves to tell?

If you’re the parent of a special-needs child, please know that you’re not alone. There is hope and help to be found in any number of resources. You discovered long ago that you don’t have all the answers, and that’s a hard place to be. Consider it an opportunity to lean on Christ that much more.

BOTTOM LINE

Being the parent of a special-needs child is challenging to say the least, but it’s also a chance to rely on God. He is always more than enough.

Moment of Strength: Psalm 139:15-18