Week 8- Made it.....phew!

Week 8! Amazing that it's gone so quickly.  Truthfully, my writing well is feeling a little dry at this point of the course.  To try something different for this entry, I am going to do a little Bible study and find some passages that I think connect to the material we have been studying in this course.  It will be a nice little evening Bible study for me, and also a nice review of the whole course. Here it goes!

John 9:2-7  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud.

Students with disabilities have gifts each and everyone of them.  They are not disabled because of some fault of their own, but rather, are the way they are so that God's great works can be displayed in them.  Sometimes this can mean through miraculous healing, and sometimes it's through sharing their God given gifts. As a teacher, I need to see each of these students as people who are part of my classroom community that have wonderful gifts to contribute to the community. 

Luke 14:12-13 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind...

Jesus gave everyone clear teaching to especially look after and minister to people with disabilities.  He came to Earth to especially minster to these people, and as Christians, so should we. This verse is a great reminder of this.  

Matthew 18:4-5 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

Each child that I teach is Jesus. Receiving is such a beautiful word. How humbling that I am given 25 students each September.  I must receive each and every one, no matter what difference.  What a beautiful opportunity. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

There is not one student in my class lacking gifts that our community needs. Each has a role to play.  No role is more important than another. Inclusion is essential, so that students with special needs can play their essential role.  Without them, we are an impoverished community. 

Good Night! =)