Saturday Rafael and I enjoyed An Evening of Elegance listening to Gospel singers Ernest Pugh, DeWayne Woods, Anita Wilson and Carolyn Traylor. Rafael has autism. While he is verbal, he does not engage in conversations. He does engage in expressive emotions. Rafael jumped, walked and raised his hands praising God along with the singers and audience. Another man who appeared to be typical ran around the church community center where the event was held a couple of times in praise to God. Others stomped their feet, waved their hands, danced and sang.
I was thankful that Rafael had a chance to participate in a Christian event and would love to see more persons with autism and other different minds and abilities at Christian events and in diverse parts of society. It's time for everyone to come out and contribute their gifts and fruit widely.
Maybe some who are different don't come out much into public because of a false belief that God designed everyone to be typical, and something is wrong if you are not typical. Yet God made people typical and different on purpose. Exodus 4:11 New Living Translation Bible says, "Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?"
While I would like for Rafael to converse, I am convinced that not all of autism is a disability. Rafael communicates extensively non-verbally and prefers intimate relationships to strangers. These are qualities that should be celebrated as God's creative, good design.
Sunday when we were walking in a shopping mall Rafael and I saw a young, African-American man wearing a T-shirt saying, "I am awesome." Hallelujah! God is awesome. His people are awesome. They are royalty, joint-heirs with God the Son Jesus Christ.
Rafael and I hold a kingly view of not only incorporating persons who are different into everyday life, but incorporating them at the highest and best levels. The Bible book of 2 Samuel chapter 9 records that Mephibosheth was lame in his feet and his mind because he thought and spoke of himself as "a dead dog." Nevertheless, King David had him eating at the table of the highest level of government all his life, living in kingly housing and being served by the servant Ziba who was a servant of a former king and had 15 sons and 20 servants to help Mephibosheth. People who are different should be welcome in fine restaurants not just fast food restaurants, single family homes not just group homes. They should have well-paid numerous servants not just lowly-paid, without benefits servants to assist them in fulfilling God's plan for their life. Typical and different we all need other people to help us fulfill God's plan for our life.
Believers may not always have the best, but we can pursue the best and ask God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost to strengthen us during all of the journey of life. The Apostle Paul writes in Filipenses 4:12-13 la Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, "Sé lo que es vivir en la pobreza, y también lo que es vivir en la abundancia. He aprendido a hacer frente a cualquier situación, lo mismo a estar satisfecho que a tener hambre, a tener de sobra que a no tener nada. A todo puedo hacerle frente, gracias a Cristo que me fortalece."
From birth until his current age of 20 I have mostly tried to include Rafael in the best parts of life because the God we serve is not miserly but way more than enough. I am believing God for more friends for Rafael and a Christian wife. Mephibosheth was married and had at least one child who was named Micha. Today Nick Vujicic is married to Kanae Miyahara, has no arms and legs, is a Christian evangelist, is a motivational speaker, is director of the nonprofit group Life Without Limbs and is a Serbian who has lived in Australia and America. Nick also has caregivers. He is humble and responsible enough to ask for the help he needs to fulfill God's plan for his life. I don't know if Nick has children, but he wrote in his book Life Without Limbs that he is able and desiring to have children.
God approves of persons who are typical and different having marital sex. While God does not call singles to have sex with other people, God created everyone as a sexual person. Married people and singles are sexy. Typical and different we are all created with an interest in sex. My mom says as a three-year-old I was frustrated that my maternal grandmother wouldn't answer my questions about "butts." Rafael as a young person had a habit of touching the breasts of beautiful women. Sexual desire is not evil. It's a good thing, a God-created thing, to be managed with mercy, merriment and magnificence. Celebrate your sexuality within Biblical boundaries.
You are also welcomed to join Rafael, me and others Thursdays 7:30-9:00 p.m. for our relationship group located at 14336 Winewood Lane #11, Woodbridge, Virginia. Friendship, marriage and other good things are for all people, so all people single, married, typical, different and all other characteristics are welcome to join us to improve relationships and to form new ones.
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