KINABUKASAN SOCIETY

Towards Unity and Service

Shaya

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled
children.  Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career,
while others can be main-streamed into conventional schools.  At a Chush
fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that
would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried. 
"Where is the perfection in my son Shaya?  Everything God does is done  with
perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do.
My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do.
Where is God's perfection?"
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish
and stilled by the piercing query.
"I believe,"  the father answered," that when God brings a child like this
into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:
One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys
Shaya knew were playing baseball.  Shaya asked,  "Do you think they will
let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and
that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father
understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a
comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya's father approached one of the boys in
the field and asked if Shaya could play.  The boy looked around for guidance
from his team-mates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and
said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. guess
he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninthinning."
Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled  broadly.  Shaya was told to
put on a glove and go out to play short center field.  In the bottom of the
eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with
two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya
was scheduled to be up.  Would the team actually let Shaya bat at his
juncture and give away their chance to win the game?
Suprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but
impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly,
let alone hit with it.  However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the
pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least
be able to make contact. The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily
and missed.  One of Shaya's team-mates came up to Shaya and together the
held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher
gain took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the
pitch came in,   Shaya and his team-mate swung at the bat and together they
hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft
grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya
would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher
took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach ofthefirst baseman.
Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first.  Run to first."
Never in his life had Shaya run to first.  He scampered down the baseline
wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder
had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would
tag out Shaya, who was still running.  But the right fielder understood what
the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the
third baseman's head.  Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second."
Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously
circled the bases towards home.  As Shaya reached second base, the opposing
short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of  third base and
shouted,  "Run to third."  As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams
ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home."  Shaya ran home, stepped on home
plate and all 18 boys lifted him on  their shoulders and made him the hero,
as he had just hit a "grand slam"  and won the game for his team.
"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face,
"those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."

Funny how this is so true and shame on us!  Funny how simple it is for
people to trash God and then wonder why the world is going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the holy books say.

Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread
like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding something good,
people think twice about sharing.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through
cyberspace, but the public discussion of God is suppressed in the school andworkplace.

Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many
on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they
will think of you for sending it to them.

Funny isn't it?!

Contributed by: Melville Sequiera

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