Special Needs.

(Dedicated to the Portman Family)

I grew up with a learning disability. Now, people have “special needs.” However you put it, we live in a day where parents and schools are keenly aware of learning issues and have multiple ways of addressing, or meeting, those needs. For those who struggle with reading, they have methods of reaching the student, still. For those who are auditory learners, they have another approach. The list is ever-growing, and how blessed we all are to have ways of meeting students where they are. It has the ability to transform lives.

In a recent meeting, I watched as a committed faculty met with a student and his parents and could feel the love and care filling the room. The teachers really knew the student, his strengths and liabilities. What’s more, they really cared. The student smiled as they pointed out his strengths and left the room with a spring in his step, as he believed in himself as a student, as if for the first time.

As I thought about that moment, I was reminded of when Jesus went and ate with “sinners and tax collectors.” There was an uproar about his socializing with such folk, but he went anyway. In one way or another, each person gathered at the table had “special needs.” Some of those needs came at birth, others through choices, but the people were set apart from others because of their special needs. Jesus met with them and, like the conference of committed teachers, knew them inside and out. More important, he cared for them deeply. His attention, his knowing and caring, transformed their lives.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have special needs. Some of us were born with them, others made choices that led to them, but the needs are there regardless of their origin. The wonder to be celebrated is the presence that knows our needs and cares for us in a special way because, not despite, of them.  It can cause a smile on a face and spring in a step.

I guess that’s why they call it the Gospel.