The virtue of imperfection

My nephew is autistic.  While his body sometimes resists his efforts at control, he is blessed, not only with acute intelligence, but with the type of analytical insight that many adults never attain.  Every year, he puts in writing his thoughts about the meaning of Passover.  This year, he had this to say:

“Moses couldn’t speak well yet he liberated Hebrew slaves into freedom. The disabled may be limited in some ways but God selected Moses to liberate his people. Why did God choose an imperfect man to do this? God chose a man with doubts and a disability to lead because he wanted to show that doubts lead to insight and too much certainty leads to arrogance. He chose a disabled man because Moses had to struggle and overcome challenges. Moses couldn’t do it alone. He relied on the help of Aaron and others to relay his message verbally and to talk to the people. But Moses alone saw God Himself.

God doesn’t want perfection. He loved Moses, flawed in body but perfect in spirit. Moses saved the Jewish people and taught us to accept challenges even if they are scary if they take us to truth and freedom. Many lessons are in this for all of us. I hope to help lead autistic people to freedom in communication and respect. How will you lead?”

How many 13 year olds do you know who show that kind of wisdom and understanding about the nature of humility and arrogance?