The Backpack

I have been having writers block for the last few weeks but something landed in my email that I couldn’t help but ask if I could use. Its from a guest author this week, Steve Hall – also known as My dad – He’s the best and I might have inherited some of my writing from him…probably most of it. But its a treasure to get to share this blessing with you all. I’ll be back Friday with another great blog for you!

HUMILITY 101 – The Company We Keep – Part 2 – The Backpack

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’

^37-40“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:34(MSG)

²⁵Just then a religious scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

²⁶He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

²⁷He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

²⁸“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” Luke 10:25

“The cry of the person in need, inconveniences those who are comfortable and satisfied with themselves and their lot” Kathryn Spink

Loving humans who are disabled in some way, whether physically, mentally, emotionally or financially is. just. harder. Understanding their needs, caring for them physically and financially is at best “inconvenient” and often overwhelming.

As older humans, Sherry and I have become more aware of our physical limitations. We know that the joy of having the grandkids over for a night on Bobo and Yaya’s farm can be very taxing. It often requires a full day of rest afterwards to recover our balance. With that thought in mind, two weeks ago we invited just the three oldest grandkids up for a Friday night as a “balanced” and sensible decision. For the two of us, adding in Hattie K with all her equipment and/or Ryder James, the almost 2 whirlwind, would just be too much to handle.

I had the job of gathering them up on Friday afternoon and transporting them up the hill. As usual, pick up zone at the Jetton house was a circus flurry of noise and activity, including the packing of all overnighters’ necessities into brightly colored backpacks. In a moment of disconnection from the chaos, I glanced at Hattie K in her wheelchair taking it all in in her silent, focused way. As she watched the preparations of her older sisters she quietly turned and wheeled off to her room. She returned in a moment with her own backpack in her lap and a hopeful expression on her sweet face and, looking straight at (or through) me, she parked herself in the front entry hall.

All Hattie wants in life is to be included…to have or do what everyone else has or is doing at any given moment. Now, she was ready to go and our “balancing” decision was about to leave her out “because she takes a lot of extra energy to care for and watch over”.

I hugged her and told her how much I loved her after she gave me the deep look directly into my soul look…and left with her sisters and her cousin and their backpacks in tow. After all, I had a schedule to keep to get Laken to her riding lesson!

Her mother told me later than she sat by the front door with her backpack in her lap and cried for an hour after we left. Just recalling that image in my mind now makes me weep in my foolishness at abandoning her based on how inconvenient it was to include her. Our weekend was so much less because she was left out.

The next weekend we arranged to take all the girls to The Royal Gala of Horses in Pensacola. ALL the girls. This time we swapped our car for the Jetton van full of girls at an interstate exit gas station. As we shifted belongings between vehicles, I caught Hattie K watching every move with even more intensity than usual. She protested loudly every time her mom came close to her and her backpack. It was clear that she was fearful that we were going to move her to the other car and leave her behind again. When we finally loaded into the van and left with ALL the girls in tow, she laughed out loud and sang in her way the entire way to the show.

At the show, she was joyfully leading the way in her chair everywhere we went. She was so deeply impressed by every part of the experience and it showed in her every expression. She was the best kid of the four on that trip and her “just glad to be here” spirit lifted the rest of us up beyond where we could have gone in her absence. All of us competed for the joy of pushing her chair way too fast and inciting howls of Hattie laughter by spinning and dancing and sharing Cheetos with her.

Rather than being an inconvenience, she was a treasure…and we will never, ever exclude her again. It’s not guilt or charity that motivates us. We simply desire to be in relationship with her every hour that we can. We want to deeply know and enjoy life from her perspective. She draws us out and teaches us over and over the simple joy of living fully in the present moment. She and “everything in her backpack” adds unique Hattie colors and Hattie flavored joy to our lives.

She is a child of God, formed with a purpose and a mission in this world. She and so many other inconvenient people have so much to teach us about the most important things in this world and the next if we will just see them, reach out to them, be with them…love them as much as we love ourselves.