As some of you may know, my son, James, was diagnosed with autism in April. He will be three years old at the end of November, but he is very much on his own developmental timeline. He is particularly behind in communications skills. The last couple of weeks, though, we have seen amazing growth in his use of language.
Joe went to San Diego last week to visit his mother, and while I had him on FaceTime, James looked right at him and said, “Hi, Dada!” We were so thrilled! Afterward, he started saying lots of things: “Bubble bath,” “Dinosaurs at the zoo!” (Side note: Until last week I never knew the Vancouver Zoo had animatronic dinosaurs—we’ll be back again many times!) But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get James to say, “Mama.”
But then, a few days ago, it finally happened! All in one evening, he said, “Mama,” and he also told me, “Night night,” and, “Love you!” There was a time when we thought James may never talk. Hearing him say he loves us has been a blessing I can’t completely describe.
As I’ve been thinking about the ways I’ve been blessed, by love and friendship and material comfort, I am mindful now, too, that the ability to express love and receive it is a huge blessing in our lives. We take language itself for granted, but what a gift, to be able to say, “I love you,” and to hear, “I love you, too.”
That’s one of the things that’s so amazing about the incarnation itself—the idea that the transcendent God, whom we know in our hearts loves us beyond measure, would become human, and that we could actually hear the voice of God saying those words, assuring us of God’s never-failing love for us. And although we didn’t get to walk the earth in the first century and hear it with our own ears, what a blessing that we have the witness of Scripture, through which we hear those words again and again. When we feel lonely, or lost, or when we doubt our self-worth or we just don’t feel very lovable, we can turn to Scripture for the assurance that God’s love for us is stronger than our own doubts and fears.
In this stewardship season, as we think about being “blessed to be a blessing,” I’m praying about how I can pass on the blessing to others of hearing and knowing that they are loved. Now that I’ve been blessed to hear James say, “I love you,” I’m realizing that while I say it a great deal within my own family, I’m not as likely to tell people outside my household that I love them.
So just to be completely honest with you, my church family, I love you. Some of you I know well, and some of you I haven’t gotten to know well yet. But I love you! I love this community we are creating together, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and I look forward to continuing to discover more about one another in the years ahead. You are a true blessing in my life, and I am so thankful for you! I pray that in the year to come, we will continue to be blessed by one another’s love and care, and that together we might find new ways to pass that love on to those outside our doors.
Mother Terry+