The Son shines

I serve bi-vocationally as a pastor and school counselor.  Today was a special day for me at school.  Every other week I make character presentations to elementary school kids.  Today the students and I had the privilege of listening to Ward Foley.  Foley was born with club hands and feet.  He had no bicep muscles at birth either.  The actual name of his disease is arthrogryposis.

Foley told of the struggle he had growing up, getting picked on, and also how he had to adjust to his handicap.  One of the  impacting parts of his story relates to what his mother told him.  Early on, he had to attend school for handicap children.  Ward came home from school and asked his mother why all the kids are weird. He wondered why he had to go to that school.  His mother told him that he was there to help them.  His mother and father reinforced within him to always look to the positive blessings of life.

I started thinking of the impact Ward Foley had on the students. The teacher and I were both riveted to his message.  I also started thinking of how true his mother and father's life lessons were and how they shaped the kind of person he turned out to be.  God was able to use someone who could have been discarded before birth knowing the struggles he would have had.  Life had meaning in Ward Foley's world.  For the atheist, life has no ultimate meaning.  All the troubles of life on an atheist worldview, are just that, troubles.  On a Christian worldview there is hope.  While this is not an argument for theism, it makes a big difference on how one perceives life.  Today, I was the student, and learned how special life is when the Son is able to shine brightly.

• For more on Ward Foley click here.