Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that’s shrouded in mystery.  It’s another painful reminder that we’re fallen people born into a fallen world that teens with abnormalities.

Currently, over 25 million people in the United States and about 1% of the population worldwide have been diagnosed as having some form of autism –  more technically known as autism spectrum disorder.

Typically, autism is present from early childhood – it’s detected in a boy or girl’s second or third year of life.

Symptoms vary from moderate to severe:  Children with autism have difficulty in communication.  For that reason, in part, they have a hard time forming relationships with others.  Social skills are a challenge to children with autism:  They make less eye contact.  They have great difficulty entering into the lives of others. They have difficulty with abstract concepts.  They repeat (and repeat) certain words and actions.  And while children with autism may have unique strengths and abilities in certain areas, their interests are usually very restricted.

Long-term, those with autism have difficulty making and keeping relationships, maintaining a job, and performing common daily tasks.

What causes autistic behavior?  Medical science isn’t sure.  Genetics appear to play a role – adults with autism appear to be more likely to have children with autism.  Are there environmental factors that at least contribute to autism?  The verdict of the world of science is – as of now – inconclusive.

It appears that – in those with autism – information is processed differently in the brain.  There’s some kind of breakdown in the communication system within the brain’s extensive web of nerve cells -and between the individual cells known as neurons.  Doctors aren’t sure why or how this happens.  What is sure (at least for now) is that there is no known cure.

The diagnosis that a child has autism spectrum disorder doesn’t come by standard medical tests, but only by careful assessment of the child’s developmental and behavioral history.   Rarely is medication helpful for children with autism.  Treatment – and I find this most significant as I try to look at this from a Christian perspective – must be individualized to the specific condition of the child with autism.  There’s simply no “One size fits all” treatment.

And when parents do receive the diagnosis that their child has autism, there’s shock, dismay, fear, and sorrow.  “It feels like the death of your hope and your dream” wrote a couple of medical doctors after they received the news that they had a child with autism.

But, to the Christian, the life-altering news that your child has autism – or that you have multiple children with autism – is absolutely NOT the death of your hopes and dreams as a parent:

  • The Bible – the Word of God – speaks of parenting and education that’s tailored to a child’s unique needs when it says in Proverbs 22:6 (literally translated): Train up a child according to his (or her) own way, and when the child is old he (or she) will not depart from it.   And his or her own way may include the ways that are fostered or affected by autism.
  • When Jesus was asked about a child who was blind from birth – another disordered condition that’s a side-effect of living in a fallen, abnormal world – He deflected the question of his disciples, Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born this way, by saying that – in a special way – the works of God would be displayed in him.   Parents in every age – including parents of children with autism – should take comfort in seeing a plan of God for their children that’s far higher than their own hopes and dreams.
  • And when the Apostle Paul faced a condition that challenged and vexed him, his plea that the Lord might remove it was answered by a promise that assures all parents of children with autism (and that assures their child as well): My grace is sufficient for you.  My power is made perfect in weakness.

In the Word of God, in the promises of God, and in the grace of God in Jesus Christ there are treasures of help and hope for children with autism – and for their parents, too!

But the Lord uses people to help dig out those treasures and make them available to enrich others.  And the best ones to mine these treasures are Christians who have children with autism, who work hard to understand the condition through the lens of the Word of God, and who develop their parenting of their children with autism under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – whose ministry included bringing blessing upon the children of those who brought their children to him in faith.

Christina Miller is just such a person.  The daughter of a Christian pastor who helped her, from her youth, to think through every issue from the perspective of the Word of God, Christina and her husband, Matt, are parents of one daughter with autism, Felicia, and another daughter, Addie, who has Sensory Processing Disorder – something similar to autism, but limited to issues with respect to how the brain processes sensory stimuli.   I don’t know of anyone who’s done more thinking about how to understand autism (and related conditions), how to effectively teach and discipline children affected by them, and how to persevere in parenting children with autism and related conditions without giving up out of discouragement or despair.  And Christina Miller works at this as a Christian committed to the whole counsel of God given in Scripture – what we commonly call “The Reformed Faith.”

You’ve already guessed that our topic for today’s Visit to the Pastor’s Study is “AutismHelping Children and Their Parents.”   I’ve been fascinated by my talks with Christina, and by her rich insights into working with children with autism.  And you will be, too!

Busy mom and wife, Christina Miller– welcome to A Visit to the Pastor’s Study….

 Here’s a link to the full program:

Yours in the One who blessed (and blesses) the little children,

Pastor Bill