Loving the Least

I’ve fallen in love with a boy and his radio. Not just any boy, but a 14 year old autistic child at one of the care points. His name is Sisifo. When i first saw him he was sitting under a tree with a old face plate to a stereo or boom box. He also had a front piece to a cell phone, which were his prized possessions. When you take a picture of Sisifo and show it to him, he will 100% of the time kiss the image of himself on your camera. He will then use the cell phone piece he has to ‘take your picture” and proceed to show it to you and then you kiss his camera. The next time i saw him again we played a game where he would throw the ball as hard as he could the opposite was as me. So i would have to run far to get the ball. As tiring as it was, hearing the laughter as i chased this ball made it all worth it. The moment I met this boy I had such a heart for him. As hard as I tried to get him to speak or make some sort of communication with me, nothing worked. However what I did notice was his need and longing just to be touched and loved. His whole body would relax as he would just rest against mine. I quickly looked around to notice that I was not receiving the most joyful looks from adults and children around me. It was in that moment I realized that Sisifo was an outcast and people giving him attention was not an common occurrence. It was as if I was being looked at as an outcast simply because I was spending my time with him. However, not even for a second did i care what anyone thought. All that I cared about was showing other people that this boy deserved just as much, if not more love than everyone else. It quickly made me think of Jesus and his ministry. Most of his ministry was spent with the sick, the lame, the outcasts, the ones the community forgot about. People like Sisifo. Jesus wasn’t afraid for one minute to be associated with these people, rather he preferred it. I’m no Jesus, but in the smallest degree i’m starting to see his joy in spending his days with the outcasts. Call me crazy but God has given me a special heart for the forgotten, for the outcasts, for the Sisifo’s in the world. If i could I would spend everyday with him before any of the “healthy” and “normal” kids according to the world’s definition. What a shame for a boy such as Sisifo to live in a society where his mental disabilities make him an outcast and shunned from most attention. While it is easy to say its cultural and its because its a third-world country he is living in, I beg to differ. I dare to say if you placed Sisifo anywhere in the world, even the U.S., even in my tiny little town of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania he would still be treated as an outcast by a handful of people. Our society has taught us if your not perfect and up to the worlds standards, your an outcast and not good enough. But thankfully, thats not what God says. God rejoices in our uniqueness, in those characteristics that the world would define as weakness. God looks down on Sisifo and doesn’t see his mental disabilities he see’s His PERFECT and BEAUTIFUL son. Just as He see’s all of us. And he calls us to do the same. He calls us to look around at the people the world has labeled ‘reject’ or ‘outcast’ and he calls us to label them ‘loved’ and ‘perfect.’ Sisifo has taught me so much even in our brief meeting and interaction. He has challenged me to see others through the eyes of Jesus . There are lots of SIsifo’s in this world, and while we may not be able to reach them all, we can at least try. If Jesus loved these people, so must we! If we don’t, who else will? 🙂