As it is a quiet morning at work, I had time to mosey over some news articles and stories. I stumbled over a particular story that struck me regarding a hateful letter addressed to a mother of a child with autism. I almost willed myself to be angry, but instead I found quiet tears welling in my eyes.
Some of those closest to me know that I have a cousin named Katie who has autism. And although by blood and relation we are cousins, what we really are is sisters. We’ve lived together since she was born and for a wonderful 12 years I have been privileged, and oh-so-blessed, to have watched her grow into the beautiful young lady she is. Her happiness is such a wonderful thing to witness, and luckily for us, it’s not a rare occurrence. She is unable to verbally communicate, but she is bursting with great love that words are not really needed. (Oh man, I need to take a break, I’m starting to cry and my boss might walk by.)
The hate in the letter hit something within me. I had once watched an episode of What Would You Do which is a show that puts regular people in certain situations to see how they would react. The situations, unlike Candid Camera or other prank shows, puts people in highly relevant and difficult situations. What would you do if someone collapsed at a stop light? What would you do if an old lady at the pharmacy couldn’t afford her medication? I watched this show in shock as many turned away and pretended to see nothing. But this morning, I was reminded of the episode where a teenage boy with Down Syndrome was bagging groceries and a customer (an actor) began barking insults at him. I watched this episode in pain as many turned away, stood in deafening silence or worse yet, empathized with the verbally abusive customer. However, I also watched as others stood up for the boy, with one woman saying, “He’s a person, the same as you and I, with feelings. Everybody deserves an education. Everybody deserves a job, and everybody deserves a chance in this life. And you should be ashamed of yourself.” My heart was touched, and I can only pray that should I be faced with such a situation, I would have that amount of courage and eloquence. I’d like to think I would (except it’s highly likely that I would be a fumbling mess). Something I liked about the show was that after the situations, the host would interview the people; the ones who acted and the ones who didn’t. Although they seemed cold and uncaring, their responses to “Why did you do what you did?” (Which for the most part, was nothing.) They replied with worries such as, “I didn’t know what to do.” “I didn’t want to get involved.” “I was too scared.” Normal answers. Regular people. What scared me most about these responses was how relatable they are to all of us.
But brothers and sisters, something that separates us from all this… Something that we should do is to stand up and take action when we see wrongs like these being committed. Be and bring Christ wherever we are, right? Jesus never stood around and allowed hate or injustice to continue. Let us bring light and warmth to a cold and dark world.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matt. 5:16
Lord, give us the courage to act with compassion and understanding the way you did, when we are faced with moments when we could just as easily act with indifference or cower with fear or intimidation. May our actions of love be gentle examples that emanate the greater love of our Father. Amen.
amen