The Dollar Tree Discourse
This past weekend as I listened to Ben speak to the crowd at the North Bradley Youth Day in Cleveland, Tennessee about our adoption into God’s family from Romans 8, I was struck by how much my life mirrors that chapter. Whitney and I became foster parents in the winter of 2016 and by Easter of 2017 we had our first placement. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Hailee and Daniel had come to stay and were adopted July 2, 2019. It has been and continues to be a wild ride as we continue to learn from one another.
When they entered our home, Hailee was two years old and Daniel was one. Daniel, of course, had very few communication skills and Hailee only had a few words accompanied with a few grunts, ooh and aah’s. It was frustrating for both the adults and especially Hailee who was developmentally behind in her speech. This was not my first experience with learning to communicate with someone who couldn’t communicate through the usual avenues. My older brother Bradley has cerebral palsy and has never been able to speak. He, like me, is very expressive with his facial features. Growing up with Bradley I had learned to read him and even understand the sounds he could make. When I was a kid, I would get frustrated with people who couldn’t understand because I was able. I didn’t understand the difficulties because that was just normal, everyday communication to me.
Fast forward to the spring of 2019. Daniel had just recently broken his leg and we had spent an entire weekend making sure he was in a good cast so that the proper healing could take place. Whitney decided to spend a little extra time with Hailee so she woke her up a little early for a special breakfast at McDonald’s before her day at daycare. Upon arrival, there were several older gentlemen eating their daily breakfast. Hailee in her usual excitement shared with the men that she had gotten a dollar and was excited to spend it. The older men began pulling money out of their pocket to increase Hailee’s spending money. When Whitney picked Hailee up from daycare she reminded her mom about the spending money that was burning a hole in her pocket. So they stopped at the Dollar Tree on the way home. What ensued became an instant classic video that gets shared every time it pops up on Facebook memories. It’s almost two minutes of hilarity as Hailee is forced to make decisions on what she wants from the Dollar Tree.
After a year and a half of speech therapy, Hailee was communicating much better. She still needed help translating in that video and in life. Whitney was there in the Dollar Tree that day to do just that. I’ve been her advocate at times, as many others have. I can remember driving home after speech therapy one day and hearing my two kids jabber on so clearly. I was thankful for a moment but quickly thought “What have we done?” Hailee very rarely stops talking these days and her brother isn’t far behind her. The video from the Dollar Tree reminds me just how far we’ve come.
Bradley, Hailee and Daniel are great illustrations of our limitations in communicating with the Almighty. Their advocates and substitute communicators are great illustrations of the Spirit’s role described in Romans 8:26-28.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
When Whitney isn’t busy keeping the kids occupied during my sermons, I’ll ask her if the lesson made sense. I’ve asked Ben on occasion the same question. I ask because it is easy to miscommunicate. Sometimes people don’t understand us. That might happen because of a lack of communication skills or they are just speaking a different language than us. It could be caused by a handicap of some sort. Maybe we just don’t want to hear it. One thing as believers, we can always know that God understands and for that I am thankful.
Travis