I recived this from a freind and wanted to share it hope you don't mind


This will give you cold chills, but puts life into perspective! At a

fund-raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled

children, the father of one of the school's students delivered a speech

that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the

school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question.



"Everything God does is done with perfection. Yet, my son, Shay, cannot

learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other

children do. Where is God's plan reflected in my son?" The audience was

stilled by the query. The father continued. "I believe," the father

answered, "that when God brings a child like Shay into the world, an

opportunity to realize the Divine Plan presents itself. And it comes in

the way people treat that child."



Then, he told the following story:



Shay and his father had walked past a park where ome boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked,"Do you think they will let me play?" Shay's father knew that most boys would not want him on their team. But the father understood that if his son were allowed to play it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging. Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We are losing by six runs, and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and I'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth

inning." In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few

runs but was still behind by three. At the top of the ninth inning,

Shay put on a glove and played in the outfield. Although no hits came

his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base. Shay was scheduled to be

the next at-bat. Would the team actually let Shay bat at this

juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit

was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold

the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as

Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to

lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able to make contact. The

first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took

a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shay. As the pitch came

in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The

pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have ended the game.



Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Shay, run to first. Run to first." Never in his life had Shay ever made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled "Run to second, run to second!" By the time Shay was rounding first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman for a tag. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions had been, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head.

Shay ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously

circled the bases towards home. As Shay reached second base, the

opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third

base, and shouted, "Run to third!" As Shay rounded third, the boys from

both teams were screaming, "Shay! Run home." Shay ran home, stepped on

home plate and was cheered as the hero, for hitting a "grand slam" and winning the game for his team. "That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face," the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of the Divine Plan into this world."

And now, a footnote to the story. We all send thousands of jokes through

e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages

regarding life choices, people think twice about sharing. The crude,

vulgar, and sometimes the obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but

public discussion of decency is too often suppressed in school and the workplace. If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably thinking about which people on your address list aren't the appropriate ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you believes that we can all make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities a day to help realize God's plan. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a spark of the Divine? Or do we pass up that opportunity,

and leave the world a bit colder in the process? You have two choices now:



1. Delete this.



2. Forward it to the people you care about.



You know the choice I made.

Dogface

 

thats a really good story... thanks Dogface