Disability and His Ability

We have tremendous spiritual resources that are available to us through Christ.  Colossians 1 reminds us that:
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

His power, His strength, will work through the life of a believer.  While we are weak in human frailty, we are strong in God's ability.  But, in order to experience the fullness of His strength, we have to be willing to surrender our own human capacity and allow His life to flow through us.  When we encounter the challenges of life, we can rely on a source of power greater than ourselves, coming from the God who gives us the strength to endure.

+++++

In Romans 8, we read about the power to overcome, the means to conquer, that we have through our relationship with Jesus Christ:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

In this age of computer technology, I believe it's still important for children to write well, to work on their penmanship.  There is even a competition that attracts some 300,000 young people between kindergarten and 8th grade.

One of the winners recently was a 7-year-old girl from Virginia.  Her name is Anaya Ellick and what's so remarkable is that she won a division - with no hands, according to a CBNNews.com story.

The story quotes principal Tracy Cox of Greenbrier Christian Academy in Chesapeake, who told ABC News, "There is truly very little that this girl cannot do."

Anaya was born without hands and she uses her forearms to write.  She has decided to not have prostheses.

Cox said, "She is a hard worker. She is determined. She is independent. She is a vivacious and a no-excuses type of young lady."

Anaya's penmanship was submitted in the category that encourages the participation of students with cognitive delays, or intellectual, physical or developmental disabilities. The judges were occupational therapists. The story says that competition director, Kathleen Wright, told ABC News, "Her writing sample was comparable to someone who had hands."

Her mother, Bianca Middleton, is quoted as saying, "It may be different, it may be hard, the road might be long, but she will persevere."

This is truly an amazing story about a girl, only 7 years of age, who has dedicated herself to overcoming obstacles.  People who are dealing with physical challenges can be so inspirational, and when you blend determination with faith in Christ, we can all take some lessons away.

One of the great lessons of which we can be reminded is that we are all designed by God.  So, even though the world might look at Anaya as being defective somehow because of her lack of hands, just think about the platform she has been given as the result of her ability to transcend her disability.

We can also think about the challenges each of us face.  We are all human beings, and we are limited by the frailties that come with that distinction.  But, when our humanity is infused with God's divinity, there are enormous things that can occur - when we are weak, He is strong!

Finally, we're reminded that many have physical disabilities - some of them are from birth, other have transpired throughout the course of life.  And, each of us has inherited a spiritual disability...it's called sin, and we can conquer it through the power of Jesus Christ.  We have been called to be overcomers in Him.  The power of indwelling sin and the consequences of past mistakes can represent challenges that can be dealt with effectively through the resources that God has given to us.