The wheelchair ride

My husband is self-employed in the media industry. It doesn’t happen too often anymore, that I can assist him but a short time ago I was able to. We were on our way to filming a trailer to advertise a job fair. Although I just love this kind of work it is always a huge challenge for me, because I’m travelling with a wheelchair and do not know ahead what to expect on-site. Since my husband is busy with the camera and the sound recording of course, there is no way he can also assist me (which he usually does). In addition to that, I seldom feel like a full-valued worker in the eyes of our customers and the protagonists. The latter this morning where 60-70 high school students and it was my responsibility to instruct the students about their task and to keep an eye on the production schedule in order to have all the scenes filmed by the end of the shoot. That’s why I kept roaming around in my wheelchair – going here and there.

Close before we went back home again, something happened that touched my heart deeply and encourages me to this day. We were saying our good-byes when the guy responsible for the location came up to me and was very interested in the display of my electrical wheelchair. He wanted to know if I really only used this little joystick to drive around. Then he said: “It looked so elegant, the way you drove around.” I was absolutely astonished! My own perception and my fears had absolutely nothing to do with a statement like this. Sitting in my wheelchair I usually feel stigmatized, an outsider, simply disabled. And here comes someone and tells me that the exact same thing that somehow makes me feel ashamed looks elegant to him. What an encouragement! And also, a warning to myself not to belittle myself – neither in my talk nor in my thoughts – just because my body does not work the same as the one of a healthy person.

Perhaps you have similar experiences. You might not sit in a wheelchair, but there are things in you or in your body that keep making you insecure. You don’t like them. Your thoughts about yourself are negative. Don’t you think it is about time you start seeing yourself from God’s perspective? The God who is your heavenly father, the one who tells you that he loves you and that you are precious in his sight!

Transmission can take some time. Thank you for your patience.