God's beloved

Last Saturday night, I felt very much at home in the company of some 'special' friends. These are people whom society may 'pity' as they help but they are usually dismissed as being of no real value.....in a society that honors material success. I first became acutely aware of the gift of such people when a friend asked me to read Henri Nouwen's book "Adam: God's Beloved" some ten years ago. I had read many of Nouwen's books before then, but had somehow not been drawn to this one. I had just read "The Road to Daybreak" ....very appropriate for me at the time when I was actually stepping back from full time work as a doctor against the tide of opinion that would have me find my 'success' in the marketplace. It may sound wonderfully sacrificial now to say I stopped working full time to look after my family. But it was not always easy for me to find that my daily schedule had to fit in with my children's. Moreover, I had nothing to show in terms of concrete achievement at the end of every month.

So at that time Nouwen introduced me to "Adam". Someone so 'unproductive' and yet being God's Beloved, able to offer his gifts to others, to those who cared enough to spend time with him and listen to his heart.

I was introduced to Yuen Loong by a friend and also by my husband. I do not work with these special people but they do. I try to visit Yuen Loong and his mother at home once a month. The first few times I met him, he was shy and would turn his face away rather than look at me, as I greeted him. His mother would coax him and he usually would steal a glance but then quickly look away again. On one of my visits, I brought a muffin for his breakfast. Little did I realize how much of a crumbly mess he would make eating it, but all this is 'nomal' for parents of these special folks.

Now he 'recognizes' me. At the 'mooncake festival' dinner that night, he was sitting in the front row when we walked in. Some way through the talk, he turned back. II waved to him from my place in the back row. He came over and sat at an empty place the row in front of us and turned round to 'greet' us by extending his hand. Now he has learned to look a familiar person long and lovingly in the face.

I believe such people are sensitive to others in ways that we could never understand. We can only appreciate their gifts when we spend time with them, in an 'unproductive' manner no doubt, but still time spent to connect with their heart. I am in a way glad that someone who cannot understand who I am (not that I am proud of any status) can learn to connect with me when I bring myself to connect with their heart. They do not need to put on a front or extend an automatic greeting, as we might sometimes do. I come away from such contacts with a greater sense of my own belovedness, as I am deeply assured of their belovedness in God's eyes.