Abstract

In the Article “Abstract” by Steven M. Fettke, was actually rather sad, but the part that stuck out to me the most was this statement he said that I would have never thought a parent would have said, but it made so much sense to me after I thought about it for a few minutes. “In our own experience of our son and his condition, my wife and I have often remarked about his potential healing as something we might actually regret. We don’t mean by that to wish him ill (or be accused by some as not having enough faith!). We mean by that for him to be “healed” would mean that who he is right now is of little value. Also, for him to be “healed” would also mean that he would not be who we have come to know him to be in his 23 years of existence. Thus, he would not be the one whom God created as a person who happens to be autistic.”

            At first reading the initial statement of his parents saying they would regret his healing actually made me angry and confused on why wouldn’t they want him to be healed from a life that gives him struggles that most other people don’t have to go through. The turning point for me was when he said that his life now has “little value,” and that’s definetly not the way I looked at a situation like this one. If it was my child I would pray constantly for the Lord to heal him. But that is not the way God made him, that is not what God had in mind for his life, the Lord orders our steps, and I believe he is special in the Lords eyes and also his parents, and to see him healed would be a different person they would not recognize because they have never known any other child but this one. I also saw it as a selfish thing for the parents to say that if he was healed that would not be the child they have always known, but what about his feelings, don’t they think that he would want to be able to have a normal life. I think they would be able to readjust their life for a miracle. But overall, I felt torn in this quote I agreed with them for the most par but I also was iffy in other sense. This part really made me think though!