“There is something you should
know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped
on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want
him to come live with us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, son.
Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”
“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to
live with us.”
“Son, you don’t know what you’re
asking. Someone with such a terrible handicap would be a terrible burden on us.
We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere
with our lives. I think you should come home and forget about this guy. He’ll
find a way to live on his own.”
At that point, the son hung up
the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however,
they received a phone call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died
after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was a
suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the
city-morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to
their horror, they also discovered something they didn’t know – their son had
only one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking and fun to be around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy and beautiful or smart as we are. Thankfully, there’s someone who won’t treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are. So, tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us !!
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