Rooster

    I call him Rooster for a reason.  He really is the cock-of-the-walk.  Just watch him walk sometimes.  It's so Foghorn Leghorn.  He's fourteen.  He's over six feet tall.  He has massive feet.  He turns tween heads with his black hair and sparkly blue eyes.  He's the most comical person I know.  He's autistic.  He's neurotic.  He absolutely adores babies.  He wants to see the world saved and he's quite willing to participate in that if his pre-requisites are met.  He laid it on the line for me:
1- No countries with malaria.
2- No countries where one must sleep under mosquito nets.
3- No countries where I can't play my PSP.
4- No countries without Wi-Fi.
5- I am not going anywhere without my own Wii.  This is non-negotiable.
6- We absolutely must take ice trays.  I can't live without ice.  It's horrible.

     When asked what he thought about his family entering into our line of Work, he replied, "Well somebody's gotta do it, and I suppose it's gotta be us."  -said with much arm waving and head bobbing.

     He's hysterical in a Dan Akroyd kind of way.  In fact, when I first heard that Dan Akroyd has Asperger's Syndrome, I couldn't see it until I compared his humor to Rooster's.  Good grief, they're twins.  I've been trying to talk him into wearing a dark suit, fedora, and sunglasses while walking around saying, "We're on a mission from God."  I think he'd nail it.  He thinks I'm nuts.

     He's the type of kid that isn't easy to love, but well worth the effort.  If you can get past the smart-aleck tone to his voice and the constant derrogatory coments that he's been told by modern tween television are funny, then you've got a kid who cares very deeply about the world around him.

     He's been bullied unmercifully.  The worst perpetrators have been adults.  Everyone thinks they know what will make him better, but oddly enough, wouldn't know enough about him to ever make those calls, and don't ever care to know.  No one seems to realize that he was born into a society that believes everything he does and says is somehow wrong.  He literally wakes up in the morning knowing that he won't do anything right today.  Every day.  That knowledge alone is enough pressure to make anyone of us go bonkers, but he gets up every day, makes his bed (most days), and walks out into a world that will never accept him and constantly make hurtful attempts at changing him.  And even though he still wakes up mama Jemima every time there is a thunderstorm in the night, he is the single bravest human being I have ever known.

     When I think about what I've been taught about Jesus laying down his rights and his life for us, and how we are called to do the same thing for him, I think about my Rooster, my beautiful, strong boy, and how he lays down his rights to comfort, to security, to comraderie every day to walk among us.  Will he ever know how much we have been honored by him?  Will we?