"We have a cure for that!"

I was at the DADs meeting last night. We had Dr. Randall J. Roper who is a great scientist and advocate for people with Down Syndrome. His research is changing lives for the future. He is studying the effects of the brain and its size in people with Down syndrome. He is an associate professor of Genetics at IUPUI. He holds a PhD in Immunology and Genetics and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Genetics and Development at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Roper was one of the key researchers instrumental in the development of the "mouse model of Down syndrome." With this important advancement, researchers like Dr. Roper can now better understand the specific traits that are present in individuals with Down syndrome and develop possible cutting-edge treatments. He also has a lab that cares for mice that have down syndrome and the genetic codes for some very proactive research in Indianapolis.

He was telling us last night about how they write grants requests all the time. One of the responses he received was appalling. The response was in big letters, "We already have a cure for this!" The implication was prenatal testing and abortion. These children and lives should be terminated. Yes, this is in the United States and with supposedly educated people that have money to use for research. Dr. Roper and his team were just as taken back and were encouraging us as parents to continue the cause set out before us.

I, as were all the dads in the room hurt, cut down, and plainly taken back by such an ignorant statement. Yet, this morning I am reminded how everyone of us are just as ignorant about our disabilities. This world wide disability is called, "sin." There are too many of us that blow over our sin and do not take it seriously. The wrong choices we make, the neglect of widows and orphans, the pure and simple act of pushing others down to advance our self, and the things that separate us from God are all sin.

On the flip side of the coin, I believe there is something that has already been done to cure our sin disability. The cross of Jesus is the cure that enables us to face and even embrace our sin. When the test for an incurable disease shows positive, even though the initial reaction may be denial, at some point the patient must accept the presence of the deadly thing in order to deal with it. How much more should we be able to face and admit our sin. At times we must even welcome it in order to deal with it.

Lets get a few things clear. First, I do not believe Down syndrome is a deadly disease in any way or fashion. I have discovered that people with an extra chromosome have unique and special abilities that transform their vision of the world into something that is much more clear, much more proactive, and much more in abundance than those of us lacking the extra chromosome. Second, the person that responded to Dr. Roper's plea for funds with such a lack of understanding on life also needs to check into the reasons for life and that anyone that would willing pro-advocate the destruction of life is going against the very nature of this world. That person's heart deeply requires the cure I am talking about.

Horatio G Spafford wrote the recognition of our disability of sin this way:

My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but he whole, Is nailed to the Cross, and I bear it no more: Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!

The ugly, gruesome, and difficult scene of a man that is God in the flesh dying is the cure for our sin. It is my sin that caused Him to hang there. It is my sin that readies me for the cure. It is my sin that qualifies me for the cure from the debilitating effects in this life. I would wonder endlessly, harassed by the symptoms of a diseased nature if it were not for the Man, the God that was willing to do the work of standing in my place and finding the cure for my sin.

Yes, we have a cure for that...not Down Syndrome, but stupid ignorance that will lead to the final destruction of all who do not find the cure of the cross. I pray that I may never become so entrenched in the world and its views, that I forget the cure.

You know I love ya, Don