People with disabilities don’t want special treatment. They just want to be treated like everyone else. As the Paralympics begin in the coming week, we honour and celebrate the determination and courage of those competing. In days past, any disability was seen as shameful, as punishment for sin committed. Even today, some able-bodied people stare and some are impatient, regarding those with disabilities as a nuisance.
Jesus touched the untouchables, healed those with illnesses, and made whole those who were broken and yet still some Christians treat those who our not like us as second class. But in God’s realm, everyone is welcome to enter through the front door, and, as Jesus did, treated as the very people of God that they are.
There is a “welcome for all” – those are the beliefs we hold as Christians – actions need to follow words.
