Insight

An except from my journal November 2007:

I like to take the kids to speech therapy and just hang out in the waiting room. It is very entertaining to watch all of the different kids coming in and out of the door. Some you know exactly what condition they have, and some take a little more analyzing and observing. They are so unique and not one of them is like another, even if they have the same diagnosis. One boy comes in with the aide of his driver, and promptly lies down right in the middle of the floor (for all to trample on) and goes to sleep until his therapist wakes him up. Another heavy-set boy comes in and eagerly searches for the TV and what movie is playing. He asks the receptionist to turn the captions on. A 12 year old girl sits on the couch smiling and staring with her mouth gaped open to all who enter. She immediately goes and sits next to any adult that enters, and turns to them, just smiling and staring. Then she returns to her own seat, not saying a word, and not having to, because her eyes say it all. One boy cries out every now and then for his mom, very anxious and worried that she won’t come. You can tell he has autism.

A lot of the kids wear glasses—the kind that magnify their eyes. I wonder if we look with our spiritual eyes we would see how magnified their spirits are. I often ask myself “Why?” Why were all of these kids born with such challenges and trials? Is it just to teach others around them the real meaning of love and compassion? I hate to think that we neurotypicals are that bad off that we would not learn compassion without a guinea pig to practice upon…unfortunately I’m afraid it’s true.

Sometimes I try to imagine the Savior and how He would embrace these kids… How He would laugh with them, teach them, play with them. These kids have no sin, no guile, no secrets, no second agendas. They are pure in heart and spirit and they are the children that are spoken of in the celestial kingdom. They are the ones that will usher in Jesus Christ when He comes again to rule upon the Earth. They are the ones that prepare us to meet the Savior.