Just the Way I Am

From time to time I think about how to answer my children, and my friends' children, when they ask why Jack is different.  I don't know exactly how to answer that question yet, though Galen and I talk about it and hopefully by the time they ask, we will feel more confident in our answers, and how to communicate our answers in a way that conveys the respect and love and acceptance we want him always, always, always to have.  (Related to that, our pastor has recently been asking us to help the church think through what is the best way to teach Jack and communicate the gospel to him in Sunday School.  We will need to work through all these things as best we can.)

In the providence of God, when Galen and I first started dating, we decided to join the same Sunday School class at Christ Pres in Nashville.  Leading the class was Dr. Anderson Spickard, who has a son, William, with Trisomy 21.  We had a chance to visit Nashville the Christmas after Jack was born.  While we were there, Anderson's wife, Margaret, gave us a copy of Just the Way I Am, by Krista Horning.  This is a simple children's book, but it conveys bedrock truths that I want influencing my childrens' thoughts concerning Jack, as well as his own thoughts of himself, as they grow up.

But I really love John Piper's review of this simple book as it appears in the Amazon listing:

"For the people in this book, the sovereignty and goodness of God have become a sanctuary for the soul in a life they did not expect to live. When they affirm the goodness and wisdom of God in creating them for short-term disability and eternal super-ability, they do not do so without tears. There is no glib trifling with pain. They are learning the paradox of "sorrowful yet always rejoicing." They are learning how to be brought low and how to abound. They believe that in this fallen age, God's loved ones groan along with the whole creation, waiting for the fullness of adoption, the redemption of their bodies. They find more hope in God's unsearchable wisdom and power and purpose than in the vagaries of natural processes or the assaults of Satan. They believe that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for their complete renewal-spiritually and physically. This healing is as sure as Jesus is precious-infinitely precious. It is only a matter of time, a vapor's breath, and they will be whole. Because of the grace of God, these lives and this book exist for the glory of God."John Piper.

My stars!  Who doesn't need to hear this?

Sweet Jack, God is using you.  There is so much here that a broken world needs to hear, that perhaps your life gives people reason to pause and think about.  Praise God!