One morning, as I was staring out the window at the parking lot where I work, a thought came to me. The parking lot has some trees. How come we are certain that when we plant a seed of a certain tree, a tree of the same kind would come out? It is with full certainty that we would expect a dog to beget a dog, not a cat. It is built into our universe that a member of a species would beget a member of the same species. 

     I work with people and I was preoccupied with the question of how can we improve the human being- to know more or to function more independently or behave better. I ponder this question working with people with disabilities- physical, cognitive, neurological. Experience has taught me that human beings may not be changed as we expect, or they may cycle- showing good behavior then reverting back to their old ways. 

     This reality made me ponder, "What is the use of trying to improve human beings when they can't or won't improve?" I believe intellectually, as a Christian, that humans have intrinsic worth as God's creation made in his image. However, my "beliefs" did not necessarily change my bent towards being preoccupied with human change. I thought that it was important to God because he loves his creation and he wants mankind to care for his creation, and that requires that a human being become "better". I still believe this but I went too far. I correlated the value of the human being with how he is able to serve God and creation. Therefore, I wrestled with the question "How can a person who has severe disabilities find worth?"

    Then the image of the parking lot producing trees, which I assume to come from a certain seed, came to mind. The person with severe disabilites is a descendant of Adam and Eve, the first instance of the human nature. Therefore, he is also an instance of the human nature. The human nature is made in the image of God, the apex of creation. Creation is made for him and he is charged with caring for it. Just because an instance of the human nature is damaged does not make him or her any less human. God's command to love our neighbor, other instances of the human nature, as ourselves, covers the severely disabled. Love could not be conditioned on fulfillment of our expectation, but must be unconditional.  

     The bible speaks of God's faithfulness to all generations. This could be taken in a common grace way. God has goodwill towards all instances of the human nature, above the rest of creation. We must remember that and resist environmentalists who call humans the cancer of the earth. He shows his faithfulness by taking care of humans, making rain fall on the good and the bad- all instances of the human nature. We also could take this in a special grace way. The church is a special group of humanity, those who are faithful to God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The church will survive any attack on it because of God's faithfulness. There will always be a group of humanity to proclaim to the rest of humanity God's love, shown decisely in the person of Jesus who lived and died and rose again so that the human can be exalted to the divine- becoming what it was meant to be, the image of God.