I don’t know about you, but when I was in seminary, we never talked about disability. Sure we talked about how the curse affected humanity. We are totally corrupt. Every part of our body and our faculties are affected by sin. We also talked about the curse being beaten by Jesus at the cross. We knew that the effects of the curse would then be lifted at the end; either by our death or by the return of Jesus. But what about now?
I was in a counseling training session last year where the instructor informed us that life sucks, and we need to only look to eternity. That seemed like terrible advice to give to someone struggling with aching depression. The world is actually full of wonderful and beautiful things. Yet, it is marred by the curse. I see that marring every time I look at my daughter…
Now, don’t get me wrong. My precious cupcake Christina is beautiful! She’s beautiful precisely because, in the midst of her disability, we see the hope of life that is to come in Christ Jesus when the curse is removed and she will be made whole. Yet, she certainly isn’t beautiful to the world around us. So, how do we understand how the cross applies to disability today?
The key is, to remember that all of us are ugly. Our figure might be Greek on the outside, but on the inside we’re marred by sin. Yet, in the cross, the beautiful one, Jesus, became marred for us. He became ugly for us. We became beautiful when we trust in Him and His redeeming work. We certainly don’t look beautiful completely. You and I still sin. But in God’s eyes, we’re redeemed, and beautiful, because He is beautiful. We are lovely, because He first loved us.
Christina won’t look “beautiful” on the outside. She will be far from “perfect” with many flaws because of the curse. But, she is made in the image of God, and in all hope and prayer, we trust she too will know Jesus as her Savior, and in that… in the relationship with Christ, not only will she be beautiful on the inside but she’ll be beautiful on the outside.
‘Til We Are Made Whole, Jesus is the Wholeness for Us
'Til We Are Made Whole 