Image Bearers

WORDS Jules Badger | ART Sam Coates

I have an invisible disability. I take medication twice a day to function like a ‘normal’ person. My life is now carefully curated with limits to keep anxiety at bay and the big black dog of depression locked in a box. I tell you this to point out that disability takes many forms. But what all disabilities have in common, however, is stigma.

In his 2022 article ‘My Disabled Body Proclaims the Gospel’, Amar D Peterman explains that ‘my disability is less about physical “malformation” and more about its place in a society where there is consensus among able-bodied persons of what is “normal” and “abnormal”, “abled” and “disabled”, “excluded” and “embraced”.’

What’s a Christ-like response to disability? Amar highlights that the man standing before Jesus in John 9 was born blind so that God’s works might be seen in him. Amar urges us to ‘embrace disabled bodies as a gift from God that both reveals divine action in the world and expands the fullness of image-bearing creation’, adding, ‘rather than longing for “healing”, I find purpose in knowing that even in the midst of physical pain and limitations, God might be revealed to me and through me’.

I like that! I find myself finally at peace being fully known by God now in my public weakness than I ever did in my private pretense of being highfunctioning and strong. Being ‘well’ or ‘healed’ is not about going back to how I was, but rather, forward with God into who I am becoming.

I’ll leave the last words to Amar… ‘Truly, we have much to learn from disabled persons through whom God chooses to reveal a divine message. Rather than reflexively understanding disabled people as objects to be healed, may our churches be welcoming, accessible and empathic places for disabled people to find rest, join fully in communion, and share the stories of God’s work in their lives with their faith community.’