IT was a few years ago I landed at the hospital where my wife is a doctor to meet the mother of a baby who had been born with a physical deformity. The child’s grandmother was sobbing, “Why?” she wept, “did God do this to my granddaughter?” There was really no way I could console her except saying we could never understand God’s reasoning, but this story I read later gave me some understanding of the Divine mind.
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question. “My son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Why?” The audience was stilled by the query.
The father continued, “I believe that when a child like Shay comes into the world, an opportunity is presented to all those around to realize their true human potential. People suddenly find they have something deep inside them, they find themselves being caring and compassionate.”
Then he told them a story: Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?” Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play. The boy said, “I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.”
In the bottom of the ninth inning, surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
Everybody started cheering, “Shay, run to first! Run to first!” Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third!” As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams were screaming, “Shay, run home!”
Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the “grand slam” and won the game for his team. “That day,” said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “the boys from both teams realized there was something much bigger than just winning, and it was Shay who helped them realize what good, kindhearted children they really were.” Now I understand one of the reasons why such children come into this world; they are sent to make us realize the goodness we have inside ourselves whenever we turn to help them..!
