Tell a Better Story

 

This month I'm sharing an essay I published in The Banner. Follow the link to read the whole article. 

It’s a warm September morning, and a group of friends and I are gathered at a local 5K run. Our daughters have just completed the race, and we’re enjoying one another’s company. My phone vibrates in my coat pocket, and a text message appears. It’s from my friend Maggie. “Is it just me, or do things like this make you feel terribly uncomfortable?” she writes under an image of a public sign outside a church. The sign reads, “Sometimes angels are disguised as kids with special needs to teach us how to be better people.” The message isn’t just outside that small-town church; it’s circulating on Facebook.

I pass my phone around to my friends. “Am I crazy for being really put off by this?” Unanimously, the answer is no. I am not crazy. I respond to Maggie, “That’s awful.” But a question nags at me: why is it awful? Maggie and I have sons with Down syndrome, and we often find ourselves in conversations like this one. I confess that before my son was born, I probably would have driven past a sign like that and thought nothing of it. I wonder: am I being too fussy? Does a message like this really do any harm?

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