God has not called us to see through each
other, but to see each other through.
ANONYMOUS
Munchie, my little papillon mix, is the stockiest dog I’ve ever had. He’s also the least athletic. In their prime, all the others could easily leap up onto my king-sized bed. They adored snuggling and cuddling there, and I adored their soft warmth and affection. When Munchie joined my four-footed family, his fondest wish was to enter into the lovefest. But he didn’t quite trust that his little legs could jump that high. And whether what he lacked was faith or spring, he usually couldn’t make it.
I didn’t want to overly baby the new dog in the pack. I felt that with encouragement, he could take this leap. Munchie loved food and I used treats to try to coax him to jump higher. He did manage to make it onto the bed now and then, but usually he came up short. Frantic to join us, he’d paw furiously at the bed’s edge while loudly proclaiming his doggie frustration and begging for help. At this juncture, I sometimes just gave in and lifted him up. But I wasn’t completely happy with this solution, and some furniture in my bedroom suggested another approach.
I have an easy chair in the room with a separate ottoman. I decided to scoot it next to the bed. With this assist and some coaxing from me, Munchie managed to get up on the bed on his own.
Okay, true confession time. I didn’t persist in my ottoman solution. It’s a bit heavy, and pushing it over grew tiresome. I got lazy, abandoned the practice, and went back to lifting Munchie onto my bed at night.
No matter. I think that ottoman exercise was more for me than my dog. God has shown me that at times, I expect too much of people. He has turned my experience with Munchie into a metaphor for that. On at least one occasion, He has literally whispered to my heart, “They can’t jump from the floor to the bed. They need an ottoman.” And I knew He wanted me to provide it.
I believe this metaphor has wider applications too. I’ve recently had the joy of becoming acquainted with a marvelous organization called Free Wheelchair Mission. They design simple, durable wheelchairs that cost roughly $50 to $60 each. Over the past ten years, they have given away half a million of these chairs to the poorest of the poor in countries all over the globe. These chairs have lifted crawlers off the ground, freed shut-ins to venture outside their homes, and in some cases made it possible for people to go to school or hold a job who couldn’t have otherwise.
In April of 2010, I was privileged to travel with this organization to Chile. Seven of us flew from the U.S. and teamed with their distribution partners in Chile, FEDES Foundation, to give out a number of wheelchairs personally to prescreened recipients. They all had touching stories, but one young man in particular grabbed my heart.
This young man, roughly 30 years old, could not speak—he could only make sounds. A childhood illness had left him unable to walk. He had had a very rough life. But despite it, he had an indomitable spirit. He was clearly beyond grateful for the wheelchair and embraced it, eagerly soaking up our team’s tips on how to drive it. We had the sense that he was eager for any small chance to be more independent…and would seize any opportunity he was offered. As we pulled away in our car, he was wheeling his brand new chair up the street.
One of the Americans could not get this fellow out of her mind. Could more be done for this young man? Through a series of events, and with help from the wonderfully caring Chilean distribution partners, a special school was found for this worthy fellow. It is especially for young adults with disabilities. With financial help from his American sponsor, this young man is now being helped there.
But that’s not the most amazing part of the story. His school evaluation revealed that this man’s physical condition was deteriorating. Without therapy, he would soon have been unable to sit in his new wheelchair. The interested American had no clue about this, but God knew! God knew this young man needed a second “ottoman.” Because a stranger answered the help wanted ad God placed on her heart, this fellow is now receiving much-needed therapy at the school, and both he and the “ottoman-giver” feel blessed.
Free Wheelchair Mission doesn’t just distribute wheelchairs. They do it in God’s name. They tell recipients their chair is from God, because He loves them. Their prayer is that the chairs not only open doors to greater physical mobility, but to a relationship with the Lord as well.
I am reminded of a certain cripple in Jesus’s day whose physical infirmity also brought him to the Lord. He, too, got an “ottoman” from his friends. Mark 2:3-5 tells us, “Some men came, bringing to [Jesus] a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”
I doubt forgiveness of sins was the goal this man and his friends were consciously seeking. Nor did it sit well with the watching religious elite. It sounded like blasphemy to them. So Jesus threw in the physical healing to prove His spiritual authority, and told the man to get up and walk—which he did.
As Munchie’s loving master, I need to help him grow and learn and offer him an ottoman when he needs a leg up. God does the same for us, but not always directly. He often chooses to work at least partially through His children, like He did with the paralytic and the young man from Chile. God gives us the incomparable privilege of providing ottomans in His name. Will you listen for His help wanted ad and answer His call on your heart?
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:37-40).
Has someone ever given you an “ottoman”? What was it? How did it help you? How did it affect your faith in God? Has God ever posted a help wanted ad in your heart? Did you answer it? If so, how was that a blessing?