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Where is God's Perfection?
In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to teaching
disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire
school career, while others can be main-streamed into conventional
schools. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child
delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out,
"Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done
with
perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other
children
do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do.
Where
is God's perfection?"
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's
anguish and
stilled by the piercing query. " I believe," the father answered, "that
when
God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he
seeks is
in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya: One
afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya
knew were
playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"
Shay's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that
most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father
understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a
comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked
if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his
teammates. Gettiing none, he took matters into his own hands and
said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I
guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the
ninth inning." Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly.
Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center
field.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but
was
still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team
scored
again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential
winning run
on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up.
Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give
away
their chance to win the game? Suprisingly, Shaya was given the bat.
Everyone
knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how
to hold
the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to
the
plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya
should at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came in and
Shaya
swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's team-mates came up to Shaya
and
together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next
pitch.
The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball
softly
toward
Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the bat
and
together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked
up
the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first
baseman.
Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead,
the
pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far
beyond
reach of the first baseman.
Everyone started yelling,"Shaya, run to first. Run to first."
Never in
his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline
wide-eyed and
startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the
ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who
would tag out
Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the
pitcher's
intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third
baseman's
head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran
towards
second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases
towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran
to him,
turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third."
As
Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming,
"Shaya run home." Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys
lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit
a
"grand slam" and won the game for his team.
"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down
his face,
"those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."
Funny how this is so true and shame on us!
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder
why the
world
is going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what
the Bible
says.
Or is it scary? Funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but
still
follow Satan (who by the way, also "believes" in God)
Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they
spread
like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord,
people
think twice about shariing.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through
cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the
school
and workplace.
Funny isn't it?
Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be
an
invisible Christian the rest of the week.
Are you laughing? Funny how when you go to forward this message,
you will
not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what
they
believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.
Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of
me than
what God thinks of me.
Are you thinking?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes...
Romans 1:16
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