God’s Autistic Servant

When the last of our six children was born we gave him the name Jadon. It had taken some time to find the name Jadon, many hours searching through the Old and New Testament looking for a biblical name that was unusual and sounded just right.

 Those were our reasons for choosing a name and there was nothing wrong with our motives but God surely had a different agenda. You see God knew something we didn’t know on that wonderful day in February 2004.

 The name Jadon is only found once in the Bible and its located in the book of Nehemiah Ch 3 verse 7

And next to them Melatiah of Gibeon repaired, and Jadon of Meron, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, to the throne of the governor Beyond the River.

 There is no history, great story of faith or book named after him but in the grand scheme of things he had an important part to play in Israel’s history, however small that part might have been. He had his own section of the wall to repair, a wall that had been broken down leaving the city insecure. He, along with many other men of Israel set himself to work in order to repair the walls of Jerusalem. His task, as far as we know, in life was to complete this work of repair and he faithfully achieved his purpose.

 I said that God knew something that we didn’t know and wouldn’t know for some time after Jadon’s birth.

 Jadon has ASD or Autistic Spectrum Disorder, he is different from all our other children and in many ways different from any other child.

 Jadon is five, he doesn’t talk and babbles in his own language, he flaps his hands in estatic excitement and bites his hand in frustration. He cannot be left alone, is unpredictable and has no awareness of danger. His likes and dislikes are his and no others, understanding Jadon is a whole new experience of learning. He often gets very frustrated and will express his dislike of something in the only way he knows how, throwing himself to the ground or biting his hand and charging through the house. Life with Jadon can be physically tiring, emotionally confusing and distressing but never without a lesson to learn.

 Just as God knew that Israel needed the Jadon of the bible to rebuild a section of the wall so too God knew and knows that we need Jadon to help rebuild the walls of our own family, walls that for to long have remained damaged leaving us with no real security.

 Many people might ask the question “why did you let this happen to us”. It’s very often those that have never involved God in their lives that suddenly ask this question when the life we expect doesn’t deliver. It’s unfair to lay a charge of injustice against a God who has been excluded from the lives of people who make such an accusation.

 You see right from the beginning of time, Man and Woman made a clear choice between “self rule” and “God’s rule” and its been very much the same ever since. Once we take on self rule we have to also accept all the consequences of a life lived without God’s rule and intervention. Taking credit for all our “achievements” but blaming God for all the problems and failures is really injustice on our part.

 But what about us, long before Jadon’s birth we had chosen “Gods Rule” in our lives and given up living for “Self Rule”. The Gospel of Jesus Christ had changed us and at the time of Jadon’s birth we like many of our Chirstian brothers and sisters strived daily to live under His rule.

 So couldn’t we rightly cry out “why did you let this happen to us”

 Yes we could cry this out and I’m sure we did this more than we can care to remember. But there is a great difference for us because this cry is not a cry of accusation.

 We do not accuse God of injustice, for the very Gospel (Good News of Jesus rescue mission to save mankind) that saved us speaks loudly of God’s justice and of His overwhelming mercy and grace which presents us with a God who gives us such of Himself that we could never earn of deserve.

 The cry we make is for “understanding” we don’t believe in a fatalistic life and don’t charge God with all the problems of the world. The term “an act of God” is very often unreasonable.

 God could end the world this very moment putting and end to sin, sickness and disease, but to do this he would have to destroy a world of sinful people, a people loved by the very God who created them. The bible tells us that there will come a time when the end will come “the day of the Lord” but until that time God delays in order that many more may find Him.

 It’s into this world of delayed “judgement” that our Jadon has been born, a boy with autism, given a right to life on this earth by God Himself.

So what about that cry for understanding, well it’s a strange and wonderful thing, the very name that we gave him “Jadon” speaks into our understanding of the many questions of “Why” What for” and so many more.

 The Jadon in Nehemiah had no other work recorded other than the rebuilding of a section of Jerusalem’s wall and yet this one task was of such importance that we find it recorded in the very words of the bible.

 It has taken some time to realise that Jadon was born into a family with walls that had been broken down in many places, unsecure and without the stable structure of the average functional family.

 Many before him had prayed, counselled and struggled with all the many problems of our family unit, with good intentions, but little if any success. I prayed on many occasions for God to send someone who would speak into our family and change the more unpleasant elements of our characters.

 I could never have imagined that God would have chosen a very unique individual to do the job that so many had never managed to achieve.

 You see Jadon simply loves and also requires love. We are forced to love this little boy and we are forced to learn patience. What do I mean by forced? Jadon does not understand rejection or the right time for a hug. He loves and hugs without condition.

Therefore we cannot determine a right time for love because in Jadon’s autistic world every moment is a time for love.

He, unlike so many others will not give up, he doesn’t know how to give up. This little boy is here for the long haul and our family has no choice but to learn to love today and even more so tomorrow.

1 Corinthians 1:27-28 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and God has chosen the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are;

 We can only marvel at the power of Christ in the weakness and so called foolishness of God’s servant Jadon.

 We are blessed to have him as an answer to prayer.