A post of encouragement for the challenged, the misfits, and the outcasts

Square peg. Round hole.

Today’s post is a note of encouragement for all you fellow caregivers out there…and for anyone else who has ever felt like a square peg in a round hole.

Back in 2020, some friends of ours arranged a “night of blessing” (as they called it) for one of their daughters. Family and friends were invited to their home to encourage, pray over, and generally uplift their 16-year-old daughter. We were honored to attend and pray with them. I'm not usually one of those "God has given me a word for you" type of people; but I prayed for a few words of wisdom to pass on. As I prayed, I thought to myself, "Perhaps there's something in our church lesson this week that would be encouraging to her." I opened my Bible and turned to our chapter for the week. It was the story of Ehud in the book of Judges. If you are unfamiliar with the story, Ehud is a left-handed Benjamite who stabbed a fat guy…not exactly the kind of story I was hoping for. My first thought: "Nope. I'm definitely not one of those 'God has given me a word for you' type of people."

Then, I studied Ehud’s story a bit more. Did you know that the Young's Literal translation of "left-handed" in Judges 3:15 is "shut of the right hand?" I didn't. But, that was interesting to me...especially since the name "Benjamin" literally means "son of the right." That would mean that describing Ehud as a "left-handed Benjamite" is akin to describing him as a "shut of the right hand, son of the right." Well, that's oxymoronic. To me, the meaning was immediately clear. Here you have a guy who, be it by disability or something else, was a lefty in a right-handed world. This is the person God chose to use to bring 80 years of peace to his people. In fact, God used the very thing that made him a bit of a misfit—his left-handedness—to bring said peace. (Most sources mention that his knife went unnoticed during a probable search of his person due to its location¹. Other sources mention that some sort of disability of his right hand made him less of a threat and therefore less likely to be searched by guards².) In any case, the fact that God choose someone like Ehud to usher in an era of peace for his people is an encouraging message for anyone who feels like a lefty in a right-handed world…including our friends' daughter.

While I am confident that God led me to that little detail because he wanted to use that story to encourage our friends and their daughter, there is more to the story. I didn't realize that there was more to the story until later that evening when I arrived back home and glanced over at my son, Isaiah. That's when I noticed a detail...one of those details that you grow so accustomed to that you no longer notice it. After our hospital stay in 2019, due to a loss of fine motor skills, Isaiah regularly held one or both hands as you see in the photo: shut. I sat and cried as I stared at my boy’s clinched right fist and thought about all the ways God had used him to bring peace into our lives.

If you’ve followed our story, you know that Isaiah’s condition has continued to deteriorate. Seizures have rendered him immobile for well over a year. His hands have begun to curl in, requiring the use hand splints to try to minimize further deterioration.

While the story of Ehud is a seemingly random story tossed in the Bible, I think about it quite often. As we continue to wade through a sea of exhaustion and brokenness, Ehud serves as an encouraging reminder. It is incredibly comforting to know that our son is exactly the kind of person who God uses to bring peace to people. In fact, I continue to hear stories of God using our incapacitated son to get others through their trials. God doesn't need Isaiah—or any of us for that matter—to be physically strong, able-bodied, able to open a right hand…or move at all. God uses people in their weakness. The disabled. The misfits. The different. The outcasts. The weak. The square pegs in round holes. For that, I am thankful. 2 Corinthians 12:9-11.

¹ https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1580558/jewish/Why-Mention-that-Ehud-Was-A-Lefty.htm

https://bibleask.org/significant-ehud-recorded-left-handed-judges-315/

² https://yearinthebible.com/2021/05/26/a-note-about-ehud-the-left-handed-man/