March 30

The Pearl of Great Price

             “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44-46

             Two men find treasure, treasure so amazing that it is worth all that they have and more.  One of the men knew what he was looking for; he was a collector of fine pearls who was accomplished at studying and evaluating pearls for the tiniest of flaws.  He searched everywhere that he could, pursuing that one, elusive, perfect pearl.  When he finally found it he sold everything that he had in order to be able to buy it and considered the exchange to be completely worth it.

            The other man was just taking a shortcut across a field and stumbled across immense treasure.  The treasure was so great that he could not carry it away with him so he did the only thing that he could think of.  He went out, sold everything he had and bought the field with the treasure in it…and smiled the entire time.

            This is the kingdom of God.  Some people spend their lives searching for truth and finally discover the treasure that Jesus has to offer.  Others are just going through their lives, not looking for anything and they run smack dab into a God who has been pursuing them.

            Life in the IDD world is like this as well.  There are some things that we are looking for from our children.  The Plans of Care that my center would work from had social goals and fine motor skills goals and money goals and job skill goals that my care providers would work on with our clients every day.  We would map out what the client wanted to achieve and steps that we could take and strategies that we could pursue to get there.  One of our clients really loved airplanes and wanted to work at the airport.  We spent over 6 months working with him on creating a resume and filling out applications.  We drove out to watch airplanes taking off and landing to help him remember why he was working so hard on something as boring as paperwork.  It was over a year before we were able to secure him a job at the airport.  He was so excited on the first day that he started work.  So excited.  He had a uniform with his name and a badge with his picture and he got to work at the airport every single day.  Treasure.  A job being around what he loved, with a consistent schedule and people who were eager to see and support him.  Treasure.

            Sometimes we were working on goals, intent on accomplishing something productive, and we found treasure that we never expected.   We had a little guy at the center in the mornings, only 6 years old or so.  He had very little language, but what he lacked in words he made up for in energy.  One morning he was running his provider ragged as they tried to work on some of his personal hygiene goals.  He was not interested in any of the things that usually pleased him.  Everything that often made him smile just made him mad on this day.  Then it happened.  He heard something, a short 7 second commercial on someone’s phone for the THX sound system.  There we no words, no melodies, just a short anthem.  He ran to the phone and wanted to see it again.  We played it for him and he beamed.  Smiles and claps and jumping up and down with excitement.  We played it again, he gave his care provider a hug and crawled up onto her lap to share this amazing 7 second experience.  They made it through several tough stretches together with this clip that no one searched for and no one planned out.  They just stumbled onto something that brought him joy.  Treasure.

            There are things that bring joy and hope and relief and laughter to our children and to us as parents.  Sometimes they are planned out.  Often we luck into them.  Always we should remember them, remember the successes and the happy accidents.  It is easy to become discouraged with failures and setbacks.  There is joy in this life that we have, often amazingly rich joy.  Treasure those moments and hold them close to your heart.

A moment to reflect:

When have you been surprised and filled with joy by your child?