In this age of "the gimmies" in which much formerly esteemed is now disdained, I am grateful for one bright exception.  Unlike a few years ago when people with disabilities were often hidden away, labeled, or even feared, we seem to have grown in acceptance and tolerance.

Back in the 1950s my older sister was considered "retarded," a designation much in disfavor today.  Barbie attended the Roosevelt School where all the students were handicapped by mental or physical limitations.  Even "handicapped" is used with caution today, and those with similar disabilities are mainstreamed into schools and circles of society much more receptive and understanding.

There didn't used to be special parking for folks with mobility needs.  Segregation was the rule rather than the exception for those considered abnormal or odd.  I know we have a long way yet to overcome entirely uneasiness in this area, but there is little I know as beautiful as teenagers befriending one of their own who is a victim of cerebral palsy or participants and volunteers at a Special Olympics event all sharing the day as the most natural thing in the world.

By his conversion to Christ, St. Paul came to realize himself as having been a moral and spiritual cripple.  What a contrast to his earlier regard of himself.  Not only he, but others had considered young Saul, for that was his name, the most accomplished, qualified up-and-comer among the Jewish elite.  He was educated, zealous, religious, and gifted, presumably the opposite of a "retard." 

Saul was esteemed.  And he disdained the sect of the Christians.  He labeled them schismatic, disordered, and repugnant.  Saul was prejudiced against the disabled while never seeing himself as nothing other than the same himself.  He was, in fact, on a mission to eradicate these defective, feeble-minded followers of Christ when confronted by the Lord on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9).

And wouldn't you know---  what was Saul given?

An acute handicap.

Struck with blindness and needing a guide to pilot him by the hand, Saul was led where only the handicapped are welcomed, into the church of Jesus Christ.

Only the handicapped, the halt and the blind, the morally crippled and spiritually broken receive mercy. 

Jesus once told the Pharisees (of whom Paul had once been a proud member), "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32)

One of the greatest blessings in Paul's life was the disability God gave him.  He was blinded so that he might now see.  Feeble and powerless of himself, Christ Jesus counted him faithful, a portrayal Paul could never have achieved with all his qualifications before.

For him as for us, the grace of our Lord overflowed with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 

There is no way to soften the analysis Paul made of himself.  "I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent," he confessed.  He didn't use euphemisms.  He didn't retreat from volatile words like "retard" or "spaz" when thinking of himself.  He confessed himself far worse.  He knows something like blaspheme is exactly what it is.

Yet, in His great mercy Jesus Christ displayed his perfect patience to all of us, like Paul, who are profoundly disabled in ways which have been far below being simply physically crippled or mentally disordered. 

We are sinners, but we have been given the wholeness of Christ, forgiven in his righteousness and given the power of life.  Our sin Christ has removed by taking our acute malady into Himself.  In return He has given us His strength, His life, and His health.

Your touch then, Lord, brought life and health,

  Gave speech and strength and sight;

And youth renewed and frenzy calmed

  Revealed You, Lord of light.               (LSB 846)