While I am convinced that every one of us is here on earth for a reason—that each of us is created for a purpose, whenever I speak on this subject, inevitably the question comes up, “But what about people with disabilities? How can they ever attain their purpose? Did God make a mistake when He made them?”

Let me tell you about John and Christine Haggai’s son, Johnny, who was born with severe cerebral palsy.  He could not talk or walk or feed himself and required 24-hour-a-day care. He lived to be only 24 years old.

It was an intoxicated doctor’s negligence that caused Johnny to be born with these acute limitations. But his parents chose to accept his birth into their family as God’s divine design for them. They devoted endless unselfish hours to his care. Yet both say he was an incredible blessing in their lives.

“Chris and I are thoroughly convinced,” says Dr. Haggai, “that Johnny came to us in the sovereign and loving will of God. Johnny lived a significant life. Significant not just because there is worth in every person, as there surely is, but… [Johnny] had a role to fill, a destiny to realize.”[1]

God used Johnny’s loving heart and sense of humor to touch the lives of many people and to deepen his parents’ faith and dependence on God.

What a contrast to the attitude most have toward people with disabilities. Our culture strongly values perfection. Yet clearly the Bible points to a purpose for each of us being on this earth—whether whole or broken. Hold tight to God’s promise in Psalm 138 that says, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me” (Psalm 138:8).

[1] MY SON JOHNNY by John Edmund Haggai (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: 1978), 80.