I’ve written, in various forums, about the topic of my
forthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift,
quite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every
human life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only
we have eyes and hearts to see and receive it. Which is to say, I’ve come to
learn that–independent of physical ability, IQ, beauty, and the like–each and
every human being has something to give other human beings.

But the question arises, in my own mind, and from others: Do
I really mean it? It’s one thing to say that Penny’s life is valuable. She can
walk. She can talk. She can tell knock-knock jokes and “make her friends funny”
(which means “make them laugh”). She can help me unload the dishwasher and “read”
books and jump “super-high.”

What about the individuals who never do anything? Who never say “I love you”? Who never crawl up the
stairs? What about the babies who die young? What about the elderly whose
brains have been overtaken with Alzheimer’s? Do I really mean it when I say
that everyone is valuable? Everyone has something to offer?

I do. In part, its an article of faith for me to believe
that God has created us “in his image,” that all of us reflect some part of God’s
nature, which is to say, all of us have been given a way to bless other humans.
But part of it comes from reading the stories of those who have lived with and
loved the individuals who are powerless, the ones who are physically and
mentally incapable. Christopher De Vinck’s The
Power of the Powerless is filled with such stories. It tells of the
profound presence of his younger brother Oliver, who spent most of his life in
bed without being able to communicate with his siblings and who was able to
minister to them nonetheless. Hans Reinders Receiving
the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology and
Ethics offers a more academic treatment of the same subject. Reinders looks
at Kelly, a woman with microcephaly (a very small brain) and wonders how it is
that Kelly might offer herself and receive from others.

If you wonder whether all human life has value, even in
mysterious ways, ways difficult to quantify, I commend these books to you.