One child who sees

I work at Lindamood-Bell, a company that teaches people who have reading disabilities how to read and to comprehend. If you don't think that literacy is intricately tied to and directly related to a person's ability to survive in this world, take a look, across the world, at the uneducated, particularly, at the illiterate, and you will see that literacy is essential to education. And education is essential to standing up for yourself (why do you think the South tried to and did ban the slaves from reading or learning how to read? or why do you think oppressors (if they're smart) always ban literacy from the peoples they are trying to oppress?).

The company I work for stands at the top of its field, literally, in success rates for improving people's ability to read and to comprehend. Comprehension is always the goal.

But I am not writing to commend the company. I am writing to tell you about a student I have who is highly autistic. We work with people with autism, Asperger's, brain damage, or reading disabilities (such as ADD, ADHD, or simply they are behind in school, etc). Now, this isn't a clinic that works with "mentally retarded" people, it works with those of us who have a hard time reading, or remembering details, or taking exams. Sound like you, or anybody you know? We work with "normal" people, and people with disabilities.

One of the students I have has severe autism. And today, as they seemed to look blankly in my eyes after I asked this person a question, I saw a glimpse of who this person is. They are sweet, giggling at most everything. My heart does two things. It breaks for the life that I know this person won't enjoy as a "normal" person. And it recognizes something of the joy of innocence, which we "normal" people have lost. And it raises questions in me about God, about if this is a person who can know the Lord Jesus (which I believe can happen, of course). I just haven't really considered how mentally handicapped people, or people with dymentia, come to Christ. I want to see miracles. I believe in miracles. And I believe that God loves this person as He loves me. But I know the Lord, and this person doesn't. Maybe that will change sometime during the course of this person's life. I pray so.

(And yes, I am using the plural form "they" to refer to a single individual. But I want to keep this person's identity secret, so I am breaking the English grammatical "rules." Man, we really need to get a neuter singular other than 'it'.)