13 years ago today Elisha Alexander Reimer was born to us in Anchorage, Alaska. How time flies!
Thinking back over Eli’s life we can see not only the impact he has had on our lives but also on the lives of others. From day one, seeing the nurses in NICU tend to him and us in unique ways, was humbling. Then to be embraced by our entire village community in Alaska was amazing. There have been many “standing stones” in his life where look back and see monuments of grace from our sovereign God displayed through his life.
One of Eli’s earliest friendships was with an elderly man from the church we attended in San Diego, Mr. Dave Rottenberg. Each Sunday after church Eli would waddle his way through the people and find Mr. Dave outside and sit down with him and “talk”. Eli new more sign language than he did spoken words then but Mr. Dave didn’t care he just enjoyed the light in Eli’s eyes and the melodic chatter Eli would offer up. Each Sunday Mr. Dave brought Eli those little “Smarties” candies and they would “talk” as Eli devoured them.
There is an interesting dynamic to this friendship between Mr. Dave and Eli. Dave grew up in Holland during WWII where his father was a Dutch Reformed pastor who was taken prisoner 6 months into the war and later died in a nazi death camp. At the age of 15 Dave was working with the Dutch underground. He was faced with many unusual trials as a teenager where his very facial expression while passing SS officers in the street determined life or death for him. What a contrast in teenage years between my son and his friend Dave.
Yet I reminded that the though nazi extermination machine has long since ceased due, in part to the indomitable courage of friends like Dave, there is still a pervasive culture of death in our country that would eliminate children like my son. With the prenatal diagnosis tools being used extensively in North America, around 90% of babies with prenatal diagnosis’ of Down Syndrome are being killed. The killing of what is essentially an entire civilization.
I can’t imagine my life without Elisha. His unconditional love is inspiring, his smile is contagious, his struggles bring me growth, his victories bring me elation, his love for Jesus is simple and precious. Why would we want children and adults like him eliminated from our lives, from our churches, from our society?!
The battle against this culture is one with few allies to be sure, but there is one that trumps all others – JESUS. Jesus spent much of His time on this earth with the disabled and infermed loving them and making them examples of His grace in the this fallen world. Do we approach those with disabilities in the same fashion? Do we shy from the controversial subjects in eugenics, abortion and the like? We should embrace these challenges head on and fully engaged with the Gospel of Christ. We need to faithfully proclaim the Gospel and engage in Gospel conversation those who oppose Him, those who advance ideologies of death, those who would eliminate ones we love. We need to do this with grace and love, but with the certainty of the brevity of our own lives – don’t neglect so great a salvation!
Mr. Dave was inspiration to us in our early parenting of a child with special needs. Our son had found his first friend in the least likely of peoples, but they shared so much that neither you nor I can really understand – an oddly common experience in life bonded by a Sovereign Providence. As I sit here I can picture Eli searching the crowd for Mr. Dave then finding him and moving as quickly as his barely-walking legs could carry him over to him. I see them sitting on a little flower bed wall, Eli just 3 years old and Mr. Dave silvery-white hair in his late seventies…they both have a gleam in their eyes and wide smiles on their faces. I am fond of those memories and the sweetness of the love they shared. Thank you Mr. Dave for being Eli’s first friend and for what you taught us who faithfully observed a friendship mostly without words but full of grace.
So my family and I will glory in Christ today at the celebration of another year of life granted my son, Elisha. Eli, we love you and thank Jesus for you every day!
From your father’s heart,
Dad
