Jesus Part 2

Well sad to say, things aren’t getting any better. Perhaps you can imagine my feelings a few years ago when I heard they were taking my name out of the entire event. It is almost a criminal offence to wish someone a Merry Christmas, just because my name is in it. People are doing all they can to push me out of the picture on my own birthday? ‘Sigh!’ It’s a sign of the times, I guess.
It reminds me of what happens all too often to another friend of mine. He’s not your average guy. In fact most people think he’s ‘special’, if you know what I mean. He’s so ‘special’ that very few people take time to speak to him. Some, who claim on Sunday that they believe all people are made in the image of God, act as if that isn’t true on Monday. Heck they don’t even act as if it were true on Sunday either. Perhaps they don’t think my friend is really one of them. I get the impression that they see him as a quality control mistake that my Father and I let ‘get by’ and then failed to fix under warranty. They act as if it’s best that this ‘mistake’ be hidden away so good folks won’t have to be uncomfortable.
One day I found my friend sitting in his wheelchair by the steps of the church, his head was in his hands. I asked him what was wrong, and he mumbled a word. He only had a few ways to communicate but if you took the time you’d know what he meant. With a little effort you could see that he could give and receive love just like everybody else, and oh how he longed to be accepted. But hardly anyone reached out to him. The only people who spent time with him were agency workers that were paid to help. This day, not even those fine Christian people going into the service could muster the courage to include my friend with a hello, a handshake or even a nod of their head.
These fine upstanding ‘Christians’ must have such delicately balanced lives and such a ‘nice’ church that they’re afraid to take a chance of ruining it by letting my friend in.I put my arm around his shoulder and told him I knew how he felt. I've wanted to become more involved with this same church for many years and they've never really let me in either!