For a few months now I’ve been pondering a big question. Since there are many minds and readers here at Families.com, I would love to tap into your differing religious viewpoints and personal philosophies in search of answers. My question is bigger than the earth and the cosmos. It’s a question that cannot be answered with any scientific certainty. And from this one question, many others are born.
So here it is: Are children with disabilities given these challenges for a divine purpose?
For example, are children with Down syndrome given this special condition by a wise and knowing creator, for a purpose we simply can’t comprehend? Are disabilities given to individuals as a calling or mission from God? Is there divine purpose in developmental delays and physical handicaps? Or, is the special needs child merely the victim of the randomness, chaos, and unpredictability of our residence on this planet? Is the process of human construction, while in the mother’s womb, so delicate and infinitely complicated that it is a statistical inevitability that some children will be physically or mentally imperfect? Are we deluding ourselves in thinking that our special sons and daughters may have an important purpose in their individual challenges?
If a divine creator knowingly selected our children to have disabilities or delays, why were some given so many, and others so few? What is the purpose of this inequitable distribution of abilities and disabilities? Why do some children seem to be endowed with health, intelligence, and popularity, and others are dealt the cruel realities of pain, confusion, and isolation?
I wrote an interview blog recently with the mother of a child with Down syndrome. In her interview, she said the following:
“These kids aren’t angels, they aren’t always lovable, they aren’t put here on earth to serve a higher purpose – they are just people, with all the feelings, sorrow, happiness, love, aspirations of other people.”
“Just people.” Is it patronizing to envision these children as something more?
Phew. I suppose those are enough questions for one quiet January morning.
Kristyn Crow is the author of this blog. Visit her website by clicking here. Some links on this blog may have been generated by outside sources are not necessarily endorsed by Kristyn Crow.
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