Disability and blessing. I preached on that topic from Luke 14 last Sunday, and I wanted to share that with you here.
As many of you know, Penny was diagnosed with Down syndrome just a few hours after she was born. I was getting my Masters in Divinity from Princeton seminary at the time. Peter was teaching and coaching and working hard at the Lawrenceville School.
Neither of us thought of ourselves as climbing a ladder of success or trying to angle our way up to the head of the table.But Penny’s birth did expose within us a desire to honor ourselves. And it also exposed how much we did not want to be identified with need. It exposed how much we did not want to admit our own limitations. And yet at the same time, it exposed a sense of belovedness. When we encountered Penny’s belovedness, it was an invitation to encounter that within ourselves and to begin to receive the blessing of God. We didn’t want to admit our limitations.
And yet, we did very much want to receive our daughter. And in receiving her, we began to receive the blessing of God—God’s way of generous, abundant love for raggedy, messed up, needy humanity. It will invite you into knowing that God just loves you to pieces, that earning your way to God or to success or to fame will never satisfy. But surrendering yourself to God’s love will fill you up to overflowing.
Listen to the full sermon here…
More with Amy Julia:
- How God Thinks About Disability
- Book—A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny
- Free Resource: Missing Out on Beautiful: Growing Up With a Child With Down Syndrome
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