Philip's Riddle

A couple weeks back I wrote about Philip’s Stockade meeting here in which he played Bible Bingo and proved to be super knowledgeable of characters in the Bible.  Ranger Sam’s assignment for the kids was to come back next week prepared with a clue about a Bible character that would stump the leaders.  I had forgotten about the assignment, so when Ranger Sam asked Philip about his clue, I apologized that I had not worked on it with him.  I decided I’d give him an opportunity to try anyway.  As I held up the letterboard, Philip spelled “ENTERTAINER.”  My husband Sam asked, “Can we get the first letter of the name?”  “L,” pointed Philip.  Everyone looked puzzled.  “Luke?’ someone guessed.  “Lydia?”  “Are you sure it starts with an L?” I asked.  “Y.”  Adam, one of the kids, said, “Maybe he isn’t thinking of a Bible character, but someone from another book.” 

I will now give you the opportunity to solve the riddle as I update you on some other things that happened this week.

I am discovering so many things I never knew about my son.  Not only is he smart in knowledge, he thinks about things normal kids do his age, he observes the world around him, and he thinks deeply about spirituality and abstract ideas.  These are all things we were made to believe that autistic people have no interest in or do not understand.

Over the weekend Philip asked his older brother Carlos, “ARE YOU A BOY WHO LIKES A GIRL?”  Probably since I was right there with them, Carlos answered him, “Nah, not really.”  Another day my mom talked to Philip after taking Carlos out shopping for some new clothes.  She said, “Philip, next time we will go out.  Where would you like to go?”  “MALL,” answered Philip.  “What do you want to get?” she asked.  Philip started spelling, “M-U-S”  I thought he was going to spell music.  Instead he finished off with a “K.”  “Musk?” I asked confused.  “Y” “Why?” I asked.  “IS EASY ON THE NOSE.” Philip answered.  “How do you know about musk?”  “LOTS OF COMMERCIALS.”  That made sense.  Philip watches at least an hour of ESPN with Carlos each day.  

This past Sunday Philip’s helpers at church told me he used the letterboard with them.  This is great news as his ability to spell with others isn’t well generalized yet.  Morgan told me the class was talking about prayer and was asked what was something they had to wait for God to answer.  She said Philip answered, “TALK.”  Morgan said she cried. 

Today I went over Philip’s Bible verse from Stockade.  It is: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  Philippians 2:3

I asked Philip, “What does selfish ambition mean?”  “THINKING OF YOURSELF ONLY,” was his answer.  “What does it mean to be humble?”  “ALWAYS ESTIMATE YOURSELF AS NEEDING OTHERS.”  I asked Philip to name an example of someone who had selfish ambition.  “CAIN,” he responded.  We talked about some of the things Cain did that resulted from being selfish such as killing his brother Abel.  “Who is someone who is humble?”  “ABEL, ELIJAH, JESUS,” he answered.  I then asked Philip, “Are you selfish or humble?”  “HUMBLE,” he answered.  “Why?”  “I TALK WITH HELP.”

So did you figure out Philip’s riddle?  When I got home after the Stockade meeting, I asked Philip to tell me again what his clue was, “AN ENTERTAINER.”  “Does the name really begin with L?”  “Y”  “Who is it?” I wondered.  I had even googled Biblical names starting with L and could not figure it out.  “LOT,” Philip answered.  “How was he an entertainer?”  “HE ENTERTAINED ANGELS.”

My son amazes me.