Dad Blog

It has been quite an amazing ride so far, and I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, wisdom and FOOD! Molly was right in saying that we would have probably skipped eating altogether without meals simply showing up at our door.

Many of you have asked how dad is holding up, and I am actually doing very well. I don't know how I would do it without everyone's prayers and encouragement, and a peace from God that is beyond understanding. . .

What is most incredible is watching God set the stage for the life a boy named Andrew Stuart. A new friend, who has a grown son with Down's, shared an experience she had with her son, who is Down's. Except for the occasional "not nice" person, most people are "softened" by the encounter with individuals with Down's. One day she was at a gas station where she was having her car worked on, and she was talking to the mechanic. He was covered in grease and a little rough around the edges. As they left, her son walked over and gave the mechanic this big hug! It took him by surprise, but it seemed to make his day. He must have thought, "Why would someone want to love me?" What a lesson in loving the unloveable.

As I thought about this encounter, I could not help but to think about the life of Christ. For the brief time he was on this earth, and of all of the people with which he could have spent time, he chose to spend it with the unloveable--tax collectors, prostitutes, the diseased, the poor and the unwanted. In John 9, Jesus and the disciples encounter a man who was blind since birth. The belief was that if someone was poor, diseased or disabled, it was because of sin in their life or their parent's life that caused it, and that God was not being favorable to that person. However, Jesus addresses this in verse 3 by saying, "Neither this man or his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

When I think of the experience with the mechanic, I can't help but think that God will not only use Andrew to love the unloveable, but also teach me and others around him to do the same. Loving the loveable is easy--our family, our friends and other close to us. Loving the unloveable is not in our nature, and learning to do so can only be taught by God. How fitting is it that God would use someone with what we would consider a disability to teach us about loving the unloveable. I can't help but think that I am the one with the disability!

Thanks to all of you for showing such a Godly love to us and to our children!