{"id":368,"date":"2010-09-15T13:25:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T13:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/perfectly-human-tiny-hands-holding-a-big-faith-by-kristin-smith.html"},"modified":"2010-09-15T13:25:16","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T13:25:16","slug":"perfectly-human-tiny-hands-holding-a-big-faith-by-kristin-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/perfectly-human-tiny-hands-holding-a-big-faith-by-kristin-smith.html","title":{"rendered":"Perfectly Human: Tiny Hands Holding a Big Faith by Kristin Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ashersmith.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We arrive home from school around
\nnoon and I’m already tired as I change Asher’s pull-up and make his lunch. <\/span>Then I once again hoist the weight of
\nhis 50-pound body against mine, and I carry him to his high chair. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>He always immediately shouts out, “BOOOOK!”
\nAnd I of course oblige and read him the daily devotion from our toddler
\ndevotion book. <\/span>His eyes stay with me as I
\nread the verse for the day. <\/span>My
\ndaughter Eden and I say the prayer at the end of the devotion and we always end
\nwith an “Aaaa…..” long pause giving Asher time to chime in with his loud and
\nproud, “MEN!” <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Immediately after Asher exclaims
\n“Cads!” <\/span>I pull out the memory
\nverse cards.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>I say “1 John 4:16 says….?”<\/p>\n

and Asher replies slowly,
\ndeliberately, “Gah…. i… uv”  <\/span>(God
\nis love). <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>He always looks up with a great big
\ngrin. <\/span>I give him a high five as I
\nfeel my throat close up and my eyes water–everyday. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>I started these lunchtime devotions
\nat the beginning of the new year for my 3-year-old daughter, Eden. <\/span>Asher loves books, so I knew he
\nwouldn’t mind a bit of lunchtime reading. 
\n<\/span>But I never thought with his severe cognitive delays and lack of speech,
\nhe could know verses from the Bible, or that he could understand how to
\ncommunicate with God through prayer.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>A couple of months ago we had
\nguests over for dinner. Asher watched us all bow and pray over the meal. <\/span>When the food had long been blessed,
\nAsher bowed his own head and folded his own tiny hands. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>He said something like, “Ga….ebu
\njebu debus a awa ebu….MEN!” <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>He looked up to a table full of
\nmisty-eyed moms and dads. <\/span>Our
\nguests marveled at the blessing of hearing Asher’s sweet voice talking to
\nGod. <\/span>No one at our table
\nunderstood the words he uttered in his prayer. <\/span>Though it would seem clear that our Maker knows his every
\nutterance.<\/p>\n

At bedtime we whisper prayers into
\nthe night– the same prayer every night…<\/p>\n

“Dear God, thank you for this day,
\nwe pray that you would continue to grow Asher big and strong (Asher shows me
\nhis muscle pose).<\/p>\n

“We pray that you would keep Asher
\nhealthy, and… (extra long pause). “…Ha-appy!” Asher says with his big
\ngrin.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>We finish with our usual “Aaa” <\/p>\n

“…MEN.” <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>My heart is full as I close his
\ndoor. <\/span>I consider
\nAsher’s prayers a true gift daily bestowed upon me by the One who knows the
\naches of my body and the pains of my heart.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Asher is the son of a pastor, but I’m
\nafraid I never imagined him being able to have faith. <\/span>I had imagined him someday being able
\nto walk, talk, read, and write. <\/span>I
\ndon’t know why, but I never thought about what his relationship with God could
\nlook like. <\/span>I never thought about
\nhow his faith life might grow and encourage family, our friends and myself.<\/p>\n

Asher’s eyes grow wide with
\ncuriosity when I read Bible stories to him. <\/span>He has a hunger and a thirst for knowing about Jesus. In his
\nown precious way at 6-years old, he is fostering a faith life all his own. <\/span>Asher has proven to me time and again
\nthat “Nothing is impossible with God.” And what a mighty God we serve, “Right
\nAsher?” <\/p>\n

His eyes do the talking that his lips cannot, “Of course mama”, as if
\nhe has known this all along. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>I
\nnever imagined that my son’s tiny hands would hold such a big faith. <\/span><\/p>\n

*Kristin Smith is the wife of Beau Smith, a Presbyterian
\ncollege pastor at California Polytechnic University.  She divides her time between being a pastor’s wife and a
\nmommy to Asher Gradon, their 6-year-old son, and Eden Grace, their 3-year-old
\ndaughter.  Asher was born with a
\ncondition affecting his muscles, cognitive abilities and his size. His
\ncondition remains undiagnosed.  They
\nreside on the Central Coast of California. <\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrive home from school around noon and I’m already tired as I change Asher’s pull-up and make his lunch. Then I once again hoist the weight of his 50-pound body against mine, and I carry him to his high chair.  He always immediately shouts out, “BOOOOK!” And I of course oblige and read him the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-faith","category-family","category-perfectly-human"],"yoast_head":"\nPerfectly Human: Tiny Hands Holding a Big Faith by Kristin Smith - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/perfectly-human-tiny-hands-holding-a-big-faith-by-kristin-smith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perfectly Human: Tiny Hands Holding a Big Faith by Kristin Smith - 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}