Cause and Effect

 This is a biblical post. 

   I made my peace a very long time ago with my children having high needs autism. I am writing in the perspective of a mother of a profoundly autistic child. Also a mother of one dealing with what is considered  a milder form. However, with the coexisting conditions makes her high needs. 

That being said I am at peace with their autistic brains and how they function. I'm at peace with the fact they will not lead a normal life or be able to live on their own. 

We have had a lot of news about autism recently. What causes it. Why is it effecting our children. What can we do to stop it. 

This is a very scary scenario for me. I know that my children were born autistic. I know it was an inherited. We had genetic testing, all of it done. We looked at their mapped out design. It was right there in black and white what caused our families autism. I don't need research studies telling me it was the Tylenol or some other random thing. I'm not discounting that. I am not saying that environmental causes have no effect on autistics making them sick. There are things in this world that is making everyone sick. I am saying that the autism is separate from that. The autistic brain is innate. I can go on and on for hours proving it is innate. However, that is not the purpose of this particular post. I will say that it is very much like an apple versus android. A different brain with a different operating system. Still human with the same everything but it functions completely different from the typical. An apple and android can do almost the same things however their programming is different. This world is mostly an apple world and it seems as though their is something is wrong with the android. The apple can get glitches and so can the android. Those glitches effect the apple differently than the android. The android is hard to figure out because everyone is used to the apple. So the android must be completely damaged. It isn't. We are just having a communication problem 

This is to say that I have a profoundly autistic child. Her brain can't communicate like a typical brain. We don't have a good line of communication. Also a brain and body communication issue. My other daughter's brain is opposite. Her brain communicates too much and she can't keep up. I have an understanding of this. I also know that I can help translate somethings for them. I don't have the answers for everything. That is God's domain. 

I spoke about my children designed this way. I have science backing me up on that. Also I know that God designed us to be different. It is evident in the environments in which he put them. We are built differently based on where we are put. I know that God made disabilities as a human experience. 

John 9:1-5 

As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

  Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

From this text we can see that the disciples want to know why? Jesus explains that this disability was created for the purpose of displaying God's work. 'As long as it is day, We must do the works of Him who sent me'  This is saying that this will continue to happen. These disabilities, so that we do the works of Him who sent me.  'As long as it is day'. So as long as we are here on this Earth. Then he goes on to say "While I am in the world , I am the light of the world."  Jesus during His ministry healed a lot of disabled individuals. A lot of them have been recorded in scriptures. Most of His dealing were with disabled people. 

  As long as God has work for us, we will see disability. We can't cure what God has created. I just put the reason why it exists. It is also a call to faith. 

Luke 5: 18-25 

Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this of because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 

 When Jesus saw their faith He said, " Friend, your sins are forgiven." 

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 

 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, " Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the paralyzed man, " I tell you get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood in front of them, took what had been lying on and went home praising God. 

In this example this man wasn't born paralyzed. Some happened to cause it. His sins needed forgiving. His sins were forgiven because his friends were faithful. His friends had faith that Jesus would help him. That He was the only one that had authority to do so. As Jesus mentioned later in the text. We search and search for a way to lessen our afflictions. We as a creation do not have this power. Only the Son of man does. Is this hard for me to say? That my children will suffer and I can help them but not fix everything? Absolutely. I also know this is the work God has given me. You might asked how can God do this? I would refer you to the entire book of Job. I will also attest that I can only speak to what God has revealed to me. I am but a creature of His creation. I have not a inkling of the workings of God. I do know that He doesn't make mistakes. He has authority over all the happenings of His creation. He allows and moves according to His glory. 

 2 Cor: 12: 6-10

Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 

  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

  This is my favorite passage. Paul was given a 'messenger of Satan'. A thorn in the side. He was given a disability. God allowed this to happen to Paul. God pointed out first My grace is sufficient. Then God said that His power is made perfect in weakness. He was saying that He allowed the disability so that His power can be made perfect. Paul communicates that he now delights in his weakness, in all of his suffering. When he is weak, he is strong. 

When we think about suffering know that God's power is made perfect in it. I can only speak for myself but in the hardships is when I feel the strongest. I'm at the mercy of the Cross. I'm not depending on myself but relying on God to carry me. 

I'm not going to argue about how Autism got here. It is considered a weakness. You might want this thorn to be taken away. Which is completely valid. As for me I do not. I do not worry about it. I know only God has the authority to "cure" it. For His grace is sufficient. That work has to be done. That His power can be made perfect. I will draw strength from my weaknesses. I delight in it. 

~Kandi