Parents know the sting of special needs rejection. We experience it as parents when we are excluded because of our children. And we experience it even more painfully when our children are rejected. Guest blogger Sheri Dacon relieves the sting of special needs rejection in this lovely Christmas devotion.

No Room in the Inn:
When Your Child with Special Needs Is Rejected

Special needs parents know the sting of special needs rejection. We know what it’s like when our child is excluded.

Here in the throes of the Christmas season, it’s easy to forget about that night. The night that changed everything. The night when the time came for God to be born.

Door after door the answer was the same.

No.

No room.

People had to realize, didn’t they? Didn’t they hear Mary’s cries of pain? Joseph must’ve been frantic as he rushed through town, desperate for a place, a room, ANY ROOM, for the Savior of the world to be delivered.

Why didn’t anyone let him in? Why did no one make room? Was there so little compassion for a young girl in labor and her flustered, terrified husband?

Well, we all know the story, don’t we?

There was no room.

When your special needs child is rejected

Parents of special needs kids know that feeling.

• That frantic, desperate knocking.
• That last-ditch attempt to get their foot in the door.
• That aching need to have their child included, wanted, welcomed. If only we could have one more chance to squeeze in, just one more do-over.

“Please let us in!” we beg. Distraught, focused, impassioned almost to the point of hysteria.

“LET US IN!”

Can’t you see how we need to come in?

But all too often the answer is:

No. No room.

Our children are often teased and bullied and made to feel less than. Jesus was, too. Our children aren’t recognized as the special people they are, but are often shunned and despised. Jesus knew that road well.

Parents, we are in the best of company.

Yes, the pain of being locked outside when everyone else is inside is frighteningly real.

But the true wonder is happening outside. . . in the stable. We are in good company.

I pray you will experience that wonder. That you would contemplate this: the God of all creation made Himself small enough, not only to be born as an infant, but to be born excluded. Outside. With no room.

He knows. He understands what it’s like.

With His wailing entry into this lowly earth He made a bold statement.

He was born outside because there was no room for Him.

Oh, how He loves our precious little ones. Oh, how he loves each of us as well.

Hope for all who are rejected

One of my favorite Christmas books is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. It is the story of a lamb named Joshua who is unable to go out with the other sheep because he is lame. He stays in the stable and, as a result, is privileged to witness the birth of the Christ child. It is because he was excluded that he experiences such a gift.

The moral of the story? There is glory and awe and worship happening outside, under the stars, beneath that one brightest holy star. Only those on the outside get to experience it.

Whether you’re a special needs parent or not, haven’t you felt the sting of rejection? The sadness of being excluded, left on the outside?

Jesus was born for you. On the outside.

So you could understand that He really does know how you feel. He gets it. He lived it. He died for it.

There may not be room in the inn, but there is room for all at the manger.

With Jesus, there is always a place for your child. And for you.

Merry Christmas,
Sheri Dacon

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