She

I don't know her name, so I will just refer to her as "She".

"She" is a girl of about 7 years of age. Nobody knows her name, not even my kids who play at the playground, and I think I know why. She is a loner, not by choice though. She doesn't seem to have any friend, only her mother who's often seen with her. When she came near to my daughters and their friends to try to join them in their game of play-pretend, they did not respond to her. I ask my daughters why didn't they let her join, and their reply was "she cannot talk". When I probed further, they said they cannot understand what she was trying to say. They spoke to her in English and she replied in a language they didn't understand. They tried Mandarin and got the same results. But there's a glimmer of hope. They said, "Papa, but when we tell her things, she understands us." "Ahhh, so no problem then. Play with her, let her join you ok? Don't exclude her", I gently reminded my daughters. "She" offered to blow bubbles for my girls. They responded by laughing and bursting the bubbles that "She" blew into the evening skies as the last of the sun's rays fade into the horizon.

"She" is a girl with intellectual disabilities. Her hair seemed to have been conveniently cut at home by someone who hasn't been trained as a barber or hairdresser. She was typically clothed in faded hand-me-down t-shirts that seemed one size too big for her. There was nothing attractive about her appearance. Nothing attractive, wasn't that the case with Jesus?

Isaiah 53:2-3 says:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

I took a good look at "She". Even her own mother appears not to fuss around her much, leaving her to roam on her own, physically and emotionally. A fleeting thought about how she will cope as she grows older came to my mind, but for the moment, I haven't seen another child of her age who's quite so carefree. She reflected an image of peace, innocence, and bliss, without any hint of arrogance or anger, even when rejected.

I have seen her mom send her to drawing classes and kindergarten the last couple of years. For the first time last Sunday, I smiled at her mom, to acknowledge her after our daughters played together at the playground. She returned the smile, and her usual downcast look was instantaneously gone. It was a smile that I have never seen before on this lady; it was just so full of exuberance.

I felt a sense of joy, yet with a tinge of regret. I have met "She" and her mother since I moved here more than 2 years ago. Yet, this is the first time that I actually smiled to them, and tried to talk to "She". What would Jesus have done in the same time span?

That night and the following, my daughters and I discussed about "She". I urged my daughters to try to include "She" whenever they play at the playground, and not to be afraid of her, or of being seen with her. Whilst I know children of the same kind tend to flock together, and there's a certainly exclusiveness about children cliques, whilst most parents wouldn't want their kids to mingle with children of lower IQ or status, I invited my girls to be inclusive in the way they relate to people. Deborah told me she did not reject her, and will include her. It was a relief to hear that.

May we, as a people and nation belonging to God, show the love of Jesus to the people we meet everyday. It's the only way we can be true to our calling as witnesses for Christ, living out God's will for us.

May God bless you readers.

Thomas