Tonight I believe I got a loud and clear message from God! I'm still reeling, actually, but I just had to share. It was church "Ladies' Night Out" and we had a wonderful meal at Olive Garden combined with some fellowship. Our waiter was a handsome, dark-haired, dimpled young man from Israel. As I looked at him, it dawned on me that he was "what Phillip would look like if he didn't have Fragile X Syndrome". Now, don't get me wrong, I think Phillip is handsome, but the protein deficit caused by Fragile X has made his face long, his muscles droopy and his mouth hang just a bit "open" most of the time. In short, he "looks" disabled. My mother's heart felt sad seeing a living, charming young man who was virtually the image of what might-have-been. Then it dawned on me... that IS what Phillip is going to look like in Heaven!
Then I came home, and found a Facebook link to
this article. After reading it, and being suitably appalled it hit me: PHILLIP IS EXACTLY LIKE GOD WANTS HIM TO BE! God didn't WILL him to have Fragile X, but God allowed it, so that people like you and me could learn to value people for more than what they look like, what they can "do" or how much "stuff" or power they have!
Although I haven't set eyes on Phillip since Olive Garden tonight, I know that I will look at him differently now. I will see not only the gift that he is to our world (and he IS) but the handsome young man that God created him to be. I pray that when I get to Heaven with Phillip, he's able to put his arms around me and say "Mom, thanks for loving me like I was... and seeing who I WAS"!
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