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MountainWings       A MountainWings Moment
#1055 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
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Shay
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Everything happens for a Reason.....

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 other can be mainstreamed into 
conventional schools.

At a Chush fundraising 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 
out, "Where is the perfection in my son, Shay? 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 Shay: 
One afternoon, Shay and his father walked past a park where some 
boys Shay knew were playing baseball. 
Shay asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"

Shay's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that 
most boys would not want him on their team. But Shay's father 
understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him 
a comfortable sense of belonging. 

Shay's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked 
if Shay could play.

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. 
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. 
I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat 
in the ninth inning."

Shay's father was ecstatic as Shay smiled broadly. S
hay was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center 
field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a 
few runs but was still behind by three.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again and 
now with two outs and the basses loaded with the potential 
winning run on base Shay was scheduled to be up. Would the team 
actually let Shay bat at this juncture and give away their 
chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was 
all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the 
bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shay stepped 
up to the plate, the pitcher moved up a few steps to lob the 
ball in softly so Shay should at least be able to make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. 

One of Shay's teammates came up to Shay and together they held 
the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball 
softly toward Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay and his teammate 
swung at the ball 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. Shay 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 of the first baseman. Everyone 
started yelling, "Shay, run to first, run to first!"

Never in his life had Shay 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 Shay, 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." Shay ran 
towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously 
circled the bases towards home.

As Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, 
turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to 
third." As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams ran 
behind him screaming, "Shay run home." Shay 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! Funny how simple it is for people to 
trash different ways of living and believing and then wonder why 
the world is going to hell.

Funny how people can send a thousand jokes through email and 
they spread like wildfire, but when one starts sending messages 
regarding life choices, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely 
through cyberspace, but public discussion of morality is too 
often suppressed in school and the workplace.

Funny how when you go to forward this message (if you choose to 
forward it), 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 how we can be more worried about what other people think 
of us than what we think of ourselves.

FUNNY ISN'T IT!


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