But God has placed this broken momma and this broken boy and their broken little family in the midst of a bigger broken, yet redeemed family, God’s Church. More specifically, God had placed them in their local church body. Why should our local church body care about my little boy with his special needs? Well, the church should care and help because my son has value and the church is here to help the broken.

I gently led my little boy to the playground equipment then let go and quietly walked away to watch him play. He stood there and watched the children play. Eventually, he began to giggle and climb around on the bottom of the equipment, laughing as the children came down the slide, the big slide that he couldn’t yet climb and come down. He was dying to do what the other children his age were doing, but his body wouldn’t yet do it. He had motor skill and developmental delays since he was born prematurely, six weeks early.

Recently, a well-meaning family member working in the field of psychology told me, “Don’t ever tell him he has a disability. If we don’t tell him, he will never know.” Really? I could see the wheels spinning in his little head as his little body watched the other children play (and I mean “little” body as he was still wearing size 18 months clothes as he approached his 3^rd birthday).h

He knows that there is something “different” about him, something wrong. If I tell him there is nothing wrong, nothing broken, he is going to know that isn’t true even if he interprets my intentions in the best light. Worse yet, I would be telling him the pain he feels isn’t real when he watches the other children do things his body won’t do. I would be denying the reality of his pain.

Apart from Christ and His Word, the best perspective I would have to give my son might be that which the culture of therapy has adopted, that there is nothing abnormal here. “Don’t ever tell him he has a disability. If we don’t tell him, he will never know.” This therapy culture has good intentions of encouraging those with special needs to work to overcome their limitations (special needs children may and do overcome their limitations. We should never accept a sense of hopelessness; God works in marvelous ways in the lives of our special needs children.)  However, the view that there is nothing abnormal with disability is not true.  The world of education adopts a similar approach: “Nothing is broken here; you just have a different learning style.” In both cases the resulting message is the same: “You are normal in a normal world.”

The world of education adopts a similar approach: “Nothing is broken here; you just have a different learning style.” In both cases the resulting message is the same: “You are normal in a normal world.”

Stephanie Hubach, MNA Special Needs Ministries Director (a ministry of Mission to North America of the Presbyterian Church in America), spells this out much better than I in her book, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers, September, 2006).

When my son watches the other children play, he knows something is broken; something isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. He needs me to start there, with the truth. He is broken in a world that is broken because of the Fall of humanity. We read about this so clearly in Genesis 3; however, he is not alone. This same account in Genesis tells him that every other child he sees playing on the playground is also broken, although not in the same way he is broken. So is his momma who watches him stand on that playground. But God…

But God has placed this broken momma and this broken boy and their broken little family in the midst of a bigger broken, yet redeemed family, God’s Church. More specifically, God had placed them in their local church body. Why should our local church body care about my little boy with his special needs? Well, the church should care and help because my son has value and the church is here to help the broken. Right? At one level yes, but at a deeper level…no…. WHAT?? If we start at that level in the pursuit of helping those with special needs, we aren’t yet working on solid enough ground.

We have to start with God. Years ago I sat under the teaching of my former pastor, Dr. Ligon Duncan. I stored away his teaching on Numbers 2.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side” (Numbers 2:1-2).

Dr. Duncan stated that this passage gives us the picture of God’s people settling each day in family units around the tent of meeting, the place that God had chosen to dwell among them. God instructed them to camp in a way that gave them a physical picture of their life, a gathering of families gathered around the presence of God.   All of their life and ministry was centered on God.

What a great picture for a ministry to families with special needs! God dwells in the hearts of His children by His Spirit. As His New Testament church we have a very special picture of His presence as we gather as a local church body, and we continue to have the same physical picture of our life and ministry centered on God that we see in Numbers 2.

So what does this mean for a church ministering to families with special needs? Where do we find the value of a child? God tells us in His Word that they are created to reflect His image and are of great value and worth.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate(Psalm 127:3-5).

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).

Where do we find the value of those who are obviously weak and broken among us?

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:21-26).

Not only are we to value those who are broken, but this passage also tells us that we need them. When we center on God and His Word, when we start there, we find the value of life, for life is at the center of the Gospel! If we do not start with God in our ministry to those with special needs, we will gradually find our ministry ending up in places and with results that we did not intend when we started. We will find that our dam spring leaks. We can plug the leaks as best we can to keep going, but eventually the dam is going to burst. Only when we start with God can we continue to come back to solid ground as we make decisions about our ministry to those with special needs.

Before time began, God knew that He would have children in His Church who had special needs and who needed special help to learn—autistic children, children with Downs Syndrome, children with dyslexia and other language processing disorders, children who could not see, who could not hear. And what did He do? He ordained to give them His Word in words.

My son has struggled with limited language abilities. Something that opened my eyes and “wowed” my heart was what happened with him when we taught him letters and sounds. The written word opened a world to my son that he was struggling to participate in. Can I trust God that He knows better than me to give my child with special needs His Word in words? Is it possible that in a culture obsessed with “picture” that we have too quickly discarded the importance of the written word? We don’t have to apologize for God’s written word.

Not only has He given my child His Word in words, but He has also given my child His people who have been given His words. How can my child get the meat of God’s Word if he struggles to process language at all, or in grasping abstract spiritual concepts? God’s people come around him and help him. How can God’s people help him if they don’t have the meat of God’s Word? Do they consider if the picture they chose actually conveys the text properly? They must know the Word well and accurately to begin to find the appropriate “helps” to convey the right meaning to my son. Perhaps the number one way God people can help my child with special needs is to know His Word… all of it… the meat of it.

God calls us to word and deed. The primary way God changes our hearts and then moves our hands is through His Spirit working through His Word. As this happens, God’s people are also the “chalkboard” or the “picture” of these abstract concepts. We show my son forgiveness when we show it to each other. We show Him grace and mercy when we reach out tangibly to help those who are struggling. We are his pictures. But he is our picture, too.

You see, my son’s physical and neurological brokenness is a picture to us of our spiritual brokenness. This is why 1 Corinthians 12 tells us we need him, too. My son needs the picture of Numbers 2:2, his family camped out with other families, gathered around the presence of God. Only there can he truly understand God’s Word and through it know God. Only there can his special needs be met in His Savior, and can he find help and hope for the brokenness that he knows is real in his life.

As God’s people, we need him camped with us as God reflects in him a picture of our need for a Savior. As we watch him on the sidewalk struggling with his inability and weakness, we see a snapshot of what God is doing in His Kingdom.

Elizabeth Griffin Ross is a member at Covenant Presbyterian (PCA) in Nashville, Tenn., and serves there as a staff member in the Early Childhood Ministry.