On Monday I’ll be speaking to a group of Bethlehem volunteers who serve our children as small group leaders in the Sunday School program. In many ways, they are the ‘front-line’ in our disability ministry, as the children with disabilities are also included, as much as possible, in the small groups in the Sunday School classes.
The disability aides make the classes accessible for the individual children with disabilities. But it is the small group leaders, by their words, actions, and attitudes, who lead the other children in how to think about, welcome, include and love the children with disabilities.
I have some preparations remaining, but am mostly ready to speak to them. I usually organize it around the story of God’s goodness to my family and the great truth of God’s sovereignty as expressed in the following:
Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Exodus 4:11
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:1-3
If you were to talk to such a group, what would you tell them?
The Works of God 
“as you have done to the least of these my brothers, you have done to Me.”
I think the thing that is most amazing to me in ministry contexts is that no two children (or adults) in the world are the same, and that this is the beauty of the body of Christ. In the same way that God has gifted every one of his children differently to serve the church, he has given each of them different needs, and then drawn them all close to him in his church to minister to one another. God’s nature is so vast and complex that it takes every one of our different natures to just begin to relate to him in (and receive) all of his goodness.
I would tell them how much parents appreciate what they’re doing, and how greatly we value the time and energy they’re extending to help our kids see Jesus.
I would encourage the teachers to “love their neighbor as themselves.” If they can look at the children and think of what they might like themselves in that specific setting I think they will naturally do their best in loving that child.
If it does not come natural or they are not sure of what is best I would encourage the teachers to not hesitate asking the child or parent how they can be better loved. Most of us parents have lots and lots of ideas we would love to share, but do not want to be overbearing.
Over the last year or two, I have contemplated on a future time, where there will be the new heavens and the new earth. I imagine that my son, Michael, and I will be sitting in some beautiful setting having a cup of perfectly brewed coffee–maybe with a squirt of chocolate in it. Our conversation will reflect on all of the ways that people have served him in feeding him, bathing him, talking to him, being kind to him in their greetings patting him on the head, and welcoming him in their class. We will reflect on how other children positioned themselves to sit next to him. We will discuss how that made a difference to him in bearing his brokenness. He will tell me with a full vocabulary and clear thinking in total restoration and beauty, how he felt loved and what that was like. And we will reflect on how God turned his disability for our good and the greatness of His glory, and we will marvel in praises to our God. Give these precious leaders a vision of how their serving is much bigger than disability. It is about God.
Tell them that the parents of the disabled child may develop their dominant view of the church through the way their child is treated by one person. I know that seems a bit removed from the immediate needs of the child and the issues of the sovereignty of God. But speaking at a human level, families with disabilities have plenty of horror stories about local churches of all sizes. We (believers, church members) want them to stay and hear the truth. We must remember that their sensitivities are rubbed raw from daily contact with a harsh world. Let them find refuge in the church and they will eventually learn that their comfort is from God, not men.