In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learningdisabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire schoolcareer, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools. At aChush fundraising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speechthat would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling theschool and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is theperfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection.But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My childcannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God'sperfection?" The audience was shocked by the question, pained by thefather's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. " Ibelieve," the father answered, "that when God brings a childlike this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the waypeople react to this child."
He then told the following storyabout his son Shaya:
One afternoon Shaya and his father walked pasta park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked,"Do you think they will let me play?"
Shaya's father knewthat his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want himon their team. But Shaya's father understood that if his son was chosen toplay it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya's fatherapproached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. Theboy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he tookmatters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs andthe game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'lltry to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."
Shaya's fatherwas ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a gloveand go out to play short center field. In the bottom of the eighth inning,Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.
Inthe bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with twoouts and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shayawas scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at thisjuncture and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly,Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but impossiblebecause Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hitwith it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a fewsteps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to makecontact.
The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily andmissed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together the heldthe bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcheragain took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. Asthe pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the bat and togetherthey hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.
The pitcher picked upthe soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the firstbaseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to rightfield, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone startedyelling,"Shaya, run to first. Run to first." Never in his lifehad Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed andstartled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had theball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tagout Shaya, who was still running.
But the right fielder understoodwhat the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far overthe third baseman's head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run tosecond." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of himdeliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base,the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of thirdbase and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, theboys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home."Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on theirshoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grandslam" and won the game for his team.
"That day,"said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."
Funny howthis is so true and shame on us! Funny how simple it is for people totrash God and then wonder why the world is going to hell. Funny how webelieve what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funnyhow you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread likewildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the God, andsomething good, people think twice about sharing. Funny how the lewd,crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the publicdiscussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Funny isn'tit? Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send itto many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, orwhat they will think of you for sending it to them. Funny how I can bemore worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks ofme.
via eMail, 27 April 2000