Things are happening…

In my job, there are lots of days when progress seems pretty non-existent. Although special education takes on a misconception of mostly being baby-sitters or teaching insignificant lessons that are way over students’ heads, there are moments of growth and new mercies in it every day.

I confess, much of the time I don’t see the growth. There have been many moments when in defeat I’d tell my husband, “What’s the point? He’s not going to college.” Or “Why am I wasting my time? He doesn’t care” or “He hasn’t made any progress. If that was going to be the end result, I could’ve put in way less time and effort and gotten to the same place.”

But God was gracious to lift the veil yesterday and show me all of the miraculous things happening beneath the surface. I saw progress. I saw moments where it all clicked. I saw hours of labor that had, despite my own blindness, been cultivated into something beautiful.

These moments were sacraments to my soul. There were moments that pointed me back to the glory of God in a broken, obviously broken, world.

These moments looked like…. a student traveling a route and using problem solving skills I didn’t even know he had. A teenage student who almost exclusively communicates with mumbles and grunts, joking and laughing and talking to me more than he has in the past 2 years. A student who pushes back against any kind of help asking me if we had our counseling appointment today. A student who hates school asking if he could attend our after school program on Mondays. A student with autism asking our van driver how his Christmas break was (Let’s just say this student only ever wants to talk about toys and never asks people how they are just because).