This is Krista’s testimony.  She has a disability.  And this is a father’s testimony about his daughter’s disability.  What is obvious is that disability has taught them both many lessons.  Neither of them signed up for these lessons.  Most of us wouldn’t sign up either.  

These two people are brave because they’ve looked disability in the eye and brought it before God, their Creator.  There, at His feet, I’m sure they’ve asked many questions and cried many tears.  But they’ve not walked away and God has been faithful to mold them and teach them.

I recently started teaching a boy who has autism.  I had no experience with this kind of student.  I was very unsure about how it was going to go.  Honestly, I was uncomfortable.  I couldn’t use my regular approach and I agonized about it for many days after that first lesson.

Why was I so uncomfortable?  That question has rattled around in my heart seeking a resolution.  I’m still unsure of the answer.

But I have been learning lessons.   I don’t understand everything about him and his abilities and in that I have a disability, a weakness.  And it’s okay to look that straight in the eye. I don’t have to know the answers or be an expert on autism to teach this boy. In only two lessons he is teaching me how much he can do. 

Another lesson I’ve been learning is that we all have weaknesses and disabilities.  We all live with the disability called sin.  It impairs our vision and damages our relationships.  It scars our memories and wounds our souls.  It’s a deadly poison that results in death.  But thanks be to God who has saved us from disabling sin and is conforming us to His own image.  He has mercy on us in our weakness and now we can communicate that same mercy to others.

“But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”