“Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again..”
John 4:13
Recognising our shared dependence is a good way to begin to see the individual behind any disability and to accept that we all have feelings that need God’s healing touch and guiding presence.
What I want to remind you here is that we are not independent, none of us. I lived for a long time in a rural setting without running water and I could haul a pot of water out of the well just like anyone else but I was dependent upon there being a source of water. I am fairly sure now, forty years later that I would struggle miserably to draw water from a well. Instead I am dependent on electric motors to bring water into an overhead tank and taps to turn; and I remain just as dependent on water as forty years ago. I share that dependence with all people.
And what of living water?
“But whoever drinks of the water I give him shall never thirst. Indeed,the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:14
If we change focus a moment from the physical to the emotional world I think it is true to say that we all need to feel valued, loved and needed, and we have empirical evidence that shows children deprived of love will struggle at many levels throughout life. If you see a blind person or someone in a wheelchair or swinging along on crutches do you think you are more independent than they are, less vulnerable? Perhaps we don’t struggle with broken footpaths in the way a person might in a wheelchair but we are just as vulnerable if we are deprived of affirmative, forgiving love. We all need in equal amounts, the grace that comes with believing in Christ crucified for us and risen in glory.
If you know that you need God’s love, the fellowship of the Holy Sprit and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ then it isn’t difficult to accept that perhaps we all need to experience love, grace and the Holy Spirit. So, when you next encounter someone with a disability will you see the unseeing eyes, the weakened legs, the wobbly gait and unusually movements, or will you see another person like yourself craving love, wanting to be needed and fully dependent on God’s grace? That is what God sees and it is why, scattered throughout the gospels are incidents of Jesus interacting with people with disabilities.
Make sure that you are seeing people with disabilities the way God sees them. Just as he sent His son for us all, so we are to welcome all into our lives, workplace and homes, no one should be left out and there are ways to ensure that.
