How challenging it can be to really believe that God does not make mistakes. We can say that He is sovereign and good, but when life hits hard with circumstances that we never would have written into our stories, those two words can ring hollow within our battered souls. Whether our children's disabilities march in through the front door or sneak in through the back, life-altering questions often follow them, threatening to choke out our present reality and cloud our future with worry.

Why God?

Will we need to return from the field?

What now?

My friend Mags once shared at a team conference that God's invitations often arrive in unexpected ways: an accident, a life-threatening illness, a birth defect...

He gently asks, “Will you trust Me to be for you in this what you wouldn't have needed Me to be otherwise?”

When we need Him to be more than what He has been in the past, He always answers Yes.

The Mighty One, who is intimately acquainted with suffering, will meet us exactly where we are in our individual journeys of disbelief, anger, pain, and despair.

And He is able to open our eyes to see beyond the limitations we are fighting.

We tend to define disability by its prefix: with words such as lacking, needing assistance, brokenness, and weakness. But I believe that we can turn this view upside down and seek to understand how people with disabilities can actually be the ones to provide what's lacking and bring wholeness to the rest of us.

In Jesus' Kingdom,
The weak are declared strong.
The intellectually challenged are deemed wise.
The broken are the missing pieces that complete the puzzle of the Body.
The powerless are the ones infused with God-given power.
The discarded are given seats of honor at the Table.
The needy rise above their circumstances.
And the last become first.

In Psalm 139, David penned beautiful words about the way God creates all bodies—those with disabilities and those who are typically abled. Each of us are unique creations of His, filled with wonder and awe.