Down Syndrome people have an extra copy of chromosome 21. I am the father of a young man with Down Syndrome , Daniel , who will be 24 tomorrow. The word ” extra,” is interesting to me. Daniel is not missing anything, he has an extra chromosome. Now as the world measures things he has something missing, intellect. Yet, when he looks at the world he is color blind. He is incapable of being racist. He loves equally. Men, woman, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the infirm, the mentally or physically handicapped, Daniel sees none of that, he only sees people.
This extra Chromosome allows him to view the world as God views the world. My son is happy and contented. I have watched other children mock him sometimes and burned inside, and then he would come in and tell me how much he liked them and that they were his friends. He would bear no ill will or grudges towards them and the very next day approach them and embrace them. This rarely made his Christian father happy.
Three days after he was born, in the midst of great turmoil and darkness the Lord Himself came and whispered in my ear ” I have given you a perfect gift from the treasures of heaven.” This is the clearest word I have ever had from the Lord.Daniel, exactly who he was, was made perfectly by the designer of all that exists. Daniel indeed has something extra, it is God given and I could only wish that I viewed the world through his eyes.
This group of people are not people who have an illness, they are a race of unique people with something extra. And that something extra should help us reevaluate how we measure perfection. If God is no respector of persons, if He loves all equally , then who is closer to the heart of God? Daniel or his dad? Without a doubt, Daniel is closer to the heart of God and I am an observer and one who learns from those who have something extra, a God gene. He does not have less than me, I have less than he......bro Frank