Not long ago I received the sweetest drawing from a little girl.
Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and I sure do wish you could see this little sketch. The little girl who had crayoned it for me drew a big yellow sun in the upper right corner and on the lawn were flowers dancing with happy faces. In the middle was a big white house with two large windows and red shutters, and in front of the house, sitting in a chair with large, spoked wheels, was a girl with blonde hair, two pink circles on her cheeks, and a wide smile with neatly-lined teeth. I looked at that and had to laugh. I gathered that was supposed to be a portrait of me.
Well, this child had scrawled a note to me using a red marker and she wrote in very big blockish letters: "Dear Joni… I like my cat and I like school. I like recess. When I grow up, I want to have a wheelchair just like yours. Love… Shannon."
I just broke out into laughter, because I know Shannon. I mean, she is one healthy, active little girl who plays hopscotch and “Mother, May I.” She may not realize it, but Shannon has absolutely no use for a wheelchair. But you try telling that to her! I mean, as far as she is concerned a wheelchair would top her birthday wish list. It’s more coveted than a purple bicycle with pink and white streamers on the handles. As far as Shannon’s concerned, a wheelchair to her means adventure. It means an initiation into a very special club. A club in which Joni is right there in the middle.
You know, Shannon hasn’t a clue about the price one actually pays to join that club. The paralysis. The pain. The disappointment. The heartache. The hurdles. Shannon discounts all that. She disregards the dark side, considering it not worth even knowing. All Shannon desires is the chance to identify with me, to be like me, to know me. And if that means having a wheelchair, then great. Bring it on, she’ll take it!
You know, it takes a child like Shannon to illuminate the meaning behind Paul’s words to the Philippians. He wrote, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things… I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…”
From this you can tell that Paul – just like Shannon – wants very much to identify and to be with and to be just like Jesus Christ. And there’s no better way to identify with Jesus; that is, to be like Him and to know Him, than to gain initiation into the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Or, as Shannon might say, “The Club.”
Now what made Paul feel this way? And how can we long to know Jesus like that when it costs so much and it hurts? Well, when things are easy and when life is going okay, you can kind of slide by with knowing “about” Jesus, but only in the fellowship of suffering do we really “know” Jesus. When hardships hit – and they don’t have to be wheelchairs; it can be any kind of pain or heartache – when they hit, we get pressed up against the breast of the Lord in such an intimate “needful” way that, well, only in suffering do we really feel, touch and taste and see how good the Lord really is and how sustaining His grace can be, friend.
You know, I write about this in a little booklet called “Pain & Providence” that I would love to send you. Because in it, I describe how membership in this special club, this fellowship of His sufferings… I describe how membership has its privileges. And one of those privileges has to do with cultivating genuine faith and I talk more about that in the book. So I want you to get your own copy today by visiting me, come on down at joniandfriends.org. And while you’re there, click on the video in which I share my testimony. Because we don’t want to know just about Jesus. No, I want you to join me today in knowing Him in that deep, sweet union of the club… the club that’s called the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends