Every human life has great value and worth, including the lives of people with disabilities! They bear the image of God in special and unique ways, and they are precious to him.
Every human life has great value and worth, including the lives of people with disabilities! They bear the image of God in special and unique ways, and they are precious to him.
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Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and it’s Down Syndrome Awareness Month. You know, it’s one thing to be born with Down syndrome nowadays, but back in the 40s, it was quite a different story. Just ask Nell Smith. Her story begins when Nell was a teenager going to school at Huntingdon College in Alabama. It was the concluding years of World War II and lots of young airmen from across the country were stationed at Maxwell Field. Nell met a young man, fell in love, and moved to California.
Nell gave birth to a son. But right from the beginning, something was wrong. The doctors told Nell’s husband that the baby should be placed in an institution where he could receive specialized care. He was, as they used to say back then, a “Mongoloid child.” Back then, that word was synonymous with “worthless” and “unwanted.” That’s the way most people viewed children with Down syndrome and Nell’s husband was not happy with this child one bit. Without Nell knowing it, her baby was placed in an institution. And when she learned about it later on, she was totally dismayed.
Nell’s marriage did not survive long. And after her husband left, she could not get her son out of her mind – nor her heart. And so, she went to get him out of the institution. As Nell describes it, it was a ramshackle old structure on a back street in downtown Los Angeles. It was called Murray’s Sanitarium, a home for helpless old people and hopeless little children. Nell walked down the hallway, at the end of which was a children’s ward. There, row upon row the little beds stood, closely aligned, where children with severe disabilities languished. Nell wrote me, saying, “Joni, there was my little son pushed away in a corner in a tiny bed with a coverlet and lying in a rancid pool of his own waste. His little back was covered with ghastly sores.” Back then, Nell had never heard of the word infanticide. She did know, however, that in Hitler’s Germany, handicapped children like hers were appointed to death.
She picked up her little boy, held him close to her breast, and slowly walked out of Murray’s Sanitarium. Her child with Down syndrome – she named him Johnny – became the light of her life. And once Nell became a follower of Jesus Christ, Johnny followed suit; Jesus became his very best friend. And as he grew, he was a great blessing to his family. Now, Johnny had many physical problems – that often happens with young people who have Down syndrome – but this young man lived to the extraordinary age of 65 years old. Quite something for a person with Down syndrome! And dear Nell, she misses her Johnny very much. But she takes great comfort knowing that she will see her son in heaven – her son, who, despite Down syndrome, had the mind of Christ.
Because this is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, I wanted to tell you Nell’s story about her beloved son, Johnny. As she wrote me in a letter, “I want to make a strong statement that all babies have a right to live. Only the Lord who created these children and gave them life has the right to say when that life should end.”
Wow. Powerful words from Nell today. And I pass them on to you as a reminder that perhaps people like Johnny, with Down syndrome, bear the image of God in a special way. So, with their simple, winsome joy of living, they are image bearers of the life and the joy of the Lord. And that’s something to remember on this National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. And a special thanks to Nell for telling the story of Johnny, her beloved son.
© Joni and Friends