Monday, September 16, 2013

Savior



Today I decided to review what Philip learned in church today.  I asked him a very open ended question to start, “What did you learn in church today?”  “ABOUT COURAGE”  “What did you learn about courage?” “ATTENDING TO THINGS EVEN WHEN YOU ARE SCARED.”  I looked at the take home paper from church and asked him about the memory verse.  He pointed on his stencil that it came from Psalm 56:3.  He even spoke the verse when I started, “When I’m afraid”  “I WILL TRUST IN YOU,” he continued in his quick quiet voice.  We went over the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea as the Egyptians pursued them.  He answered several factual questions about the story.  We talked about what it meant that God would gain glory by delivering the Israelites from the Egyptians.  “SEE HIS HEROICS,” explained Philip. 

Talking about Philip’s lesson made me want to find out how much he knew about the Gospel, the story of Jesus’s rescue of us from sin.  I asked, “Do you know what the Gospel  is?”  “GOOD NEWS,” he spelled.  We often sing a song I learned during my days in Catholic elementary school which has a chorus that goes, “Good news, good news, the Gospel is good news.”  I then asked him to explain the Gospel to me, not knowing if he really knew it or not.  This is what he spelled.

ALL SIN
ALL SHOULD DIE FOR THEIR SIN
“Are you a sinner?” I interjected.
Y
BUT JESUS DIED AT CROSS
AND FORGAVE UAR SINS
WOULD BELIEVE IS SAVED
“You mean those who would believe in Jesus are saved?
Y
“Do you believe in Jesus?”
Y

I know my son has heard the Gospel at home and at church, in storybooks and Sunday school.  But I never knew he understood.  Now I know he does!  He probably understands more deeply than I know.  I rejoice in this knowledge!  

As I look at Philip’s take home lesson from church, I see that this month they are studying courage.  This week’s lesson of Moses and the Red Sea has this take home message: I can be brave even when things seem impossible.

How applicable this is to Philip's life!  At one time everything for him seemed impossible: progress in school, a conversation, inclusion with normal kids his age, a play date with a friend.  How must Philip have felt all these years stuck in silence and misunderstood?  How achingly frustrating it must have been.  

I give God the glory for showing us all things are possible with Him!  He is leading us out of the bondage caused by autism (and ironically showing us a way to appreciate autism at the same time).  Just as He opened a path through the sea for the Israelites to walk through, He has marked a path for us to walk through with prayer partners, supportive friends and family, and Soma who taught us a way to communicate through RPM and the letterboard.  And just as the Israelites demonstrated courage by walking along the dry path formed by God, we demonstrate courage with each step we make in our daily lessons and efforts to communicate and get better at it.  

God saves us in so many ways!  He saves us from the death we deserved because of our sin.  He sent Jesus to die in our place so that those who believe would have everlasting life with our resurrected Lord and Savior.  He also rescues us from impossible, difficult circumstances and redeems them for good so that He may be glorified in them.  If you think this is impossible, just look to Philip’s life.

10 comments:

  1. Lisa, this is such a beautiful post! I'm praising God with you!

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    1. Thanks Carol! I love that we have friends in Miami who continue to pray and cheer us on. I've been keeping up with the exciting things happening there.

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    2. I love your blog. It has been so interesting and encouraging and exciting to me to read about the wonderful progress Philip and you all are making in communicating and in unlocking his potential. I think you should seriously consider saving all your blog posts and using them some day as the basis for writing a book about all these experiences!

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  2. I completey agree with Carol and continue to pray for Philip. I love reading the blog! I always share his story, especially with friends I have that have gone through similar experiences as you...you never know how many lives you'll touch. God Bless,
    susan

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    1. Thanks Susan. Giving others hope is the reason I blog. I miss you guys! Hope all is well.

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  3. wow, we just read the parting of the red sea together and also read some scripture from Exodus. Sanjay loved it. In the end the lesson he learned "Gog will show us the way".What did you learn from this lesson?" faith"

    praise god.

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  4. Hi lisa, I have one more question, I need some ideas. I asked Sanjay in our writing prompt today, if you were to name your school( he is homeschooled) what name would you give it?
    he wrote" If I were given a chance to name my school, I would name it wonderful academy because it is a great name"
    I want to take this one step further, probably play with this, make t shirts, have a banner/mascot? do you have any ideas on how I can make fun lesson out of this concept of "creating our own homeschool-wonderful academy"

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    1. Are there others in his homeschool or do yo have a group that periodically gets together? I am also curious how you break up your day. Do you do all the subjects each day?

      I definitely think you can have fun with this, especially if Sanjay picks out the mascot himself or gives his own ideas for a t-shirt design, banner, and maybe even a school song. You can also do a lesson on what school is: what the different subjects of study are, different levels of schooling (elementary to graduate school), famous students and teachers (Helen Keller/Anne Sullivan, Tito/Soma), an example of a famous school in your area and what their mascot/school colors/traditions are.

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  5. those are great ideas. I am having Sanjay feel that homeschool is fun and it is the best of the both worlds for him at this point.
    Or may be it is my guilt and my superimposing my feelings on him.who knows?
    anyhow, he is the only child who is homeschooled now and his sister is in 4 grade goes to school. we drop her off daily by car and Sanjay accompanies me.
    We are going to design a mascot and a school banner, t shirts, school song/rhyme and also design a schedule. I could also do a school map/homeschool map where different subjects are done.

    I feel like if he commits to a schedule I will have better luck rather than fighting daily with school work.

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