Igniting Potential
Sunday, November 3, 2024
"'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Mark 9:23, NIV.
Leslie Lemke has the ability to reproduce on the piano anything he hears. But the incredible thing is that not only is Leslie blind, but he's also crippled with cerebral palsy and severely disabled mentally! Here's his story:
Leslie was born prematurely and abandoned as hopelessly disabled. He had already lost his sight when May Lemke, a 52-year-old nurse, decided to quit her job to raise the pathetic 6-month-old child everyone thought was hopeless. Everyone, that is, except May. As the days of her patient, loving care stretched into years, she saw few signs of improvement.
But May didn't give up. She knew God had given Leslie a gift, and she prayed she would have the wisdom to help him find it.
May carried him everywhere until he was too heavy to lift. Then she stood him beside the backyard fence, hoping he would hang on and stand by himself, but he just crumpled into a heap. Eventually he did stand, and then walked. But he still didn't talk.
The boy did one thing, however, that seemed out of the ordinary. Whenever he touched a piece of taut string or wire, he would pick at it with his fingers. The day May found him strumming rhythmically on the bedsprings she suspected Leslie might be musical. So she and her husband bought a used piano and put it in Leslie's bedroom.
Then came the task of teaching him to play. She had him listen to classical music by the hour. Then she placed his fingers on the keys and explained the sounds he heard. And finally, after years of "practice," he began picking out simple tunes.
Early one morning, when Leslie was 16, May woke up to a flawless performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. She rushed into Leslie's room and found him sitting at his piano reproducing perfectly the music he had grown to love. Three years later he said his first word.
It's an incredible story, isn't it? But every person has God-given possibilities, if we will just look for them in ourselves and in others!
Dear Lord, help me to see possibilities in myself and others. Amen.
Leslie Lemke has the ability to reproduce on the piano anything he hears. But the incredible thing is that not only is Leslie blind, but he's also crippled with cerebral palsy and severely disabled mentally! Here's his story:
Leslie was born prematurely and abandoned as hopelessly disabled. He had already lost his sight when May Lemke, a 52-year-old nurse, decided to quit her job to raise the pathetic 6-month-old child everyone thought was hopeless. Everyone, that is, except May. As the days of her patient, loving care stretched into years, she saw few signs of improvement.
But May didn't give up. She knew God had given Leslie a gift, and she prayed she would have the wisdom to help him find it.
May carried him everywhere until he was too heavy to lift. Then she stood him beside the backyard fence, hoping he would hang on and stand by himself, but he just crumpled into a heap. Eventually he did stand, and then walked. But he still didn't talk.
The boy did one thing, however, that seemed out of the ordinary. Whenever he touched a piece of taut string or wire, he would pick at it with his fingers. The day May found him strumming rhythmically on the bedsprings she suspected Leslie might be musical. So she and her husband bought a used piano and put it in Leslie's bedroom.
Then came the task of teaching him to play. She had him listen to classical music by the hour. Then she placed his fingers on the keys and explained the sounds he heard. And finally, after years of "practice," he began picking out simple tunes.
Early one morning, when Leslie was 16, May woke up to a flawless performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. She rushed into Leslie's room and found him sitting at his piano reproducing perfectly the music he had grown to love. Three years later he said his first word.
It's an incredible story, isn't it? But every person has God-given possibilities, if we will just look for them in ourselves and in others!
Dear Lord, help me to see possibilities in myself and others. Amen.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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