How Special Needs Kids Teach Us We ALL Count
A Genesis: Where CRAYONS Come FROM”
INTRODUCTION E: THE CRAYON BIBLE
The Book of ORIGINS: Chapters 1-5
Chapter 1
In the beginning, before the first Crayon was ever formed, there was a burst of light.
And to shield the universe from its radiance, the Great Creator created the First Cloud.
As the light touched the First Cloud it began to rain.
And out of the rain there arose a great mountain.
And as the rain cascaded upon that mountain there arose a Great Rainbow.
From the radiant light of the Rainbow the Great Creator delicately pulled the three PRIMARY Crayons, perfect in form, coveRED in waxy paper that proudly displayed their names: first RED, then YELLOW, then BLUE. In that order.
She set the Crayons down upon the mountain and reveled in their beauty. And the Great Creator said, “This is good.”
But the Great Creator also saw other glorious colors in the Great Rainbow.
And so from the Rainbow she pulled three Secondary Crayons, also perfect in form, covered in waxy paper that proudly displayed their names: Green, Purple, and Orange. In that order.
She set the Crayons down upon the mountain and again reveled in their beauty. And the Great Creator said, “This is good.”
She gave the six Crayons these instructions: “You are my beloved children, the first begotten Crayons. And you are a family. Care for each other. Take care of each other. And work together to care for the generations of Crayons that will come after you.” And from the radiant light of the Rainbow the Great Creator delicately pulled the a Seventh Crayon, perfect in form, covered in waxy paper that proudly displayed the name: Brown. The Brown Crayon was given special knowledge and insight to help the Crayon children, grow and develop in a healthy way.
Chapter 2
But the slope of the mountain was steep where the Crayons stood, and YELLOW tripped over BLUE and broke her perfectly formed conical tip. From the radiant light of the Great Rainbow, the Great Creator pulled an Eighth Crayon, perfect in form, and coveRED with waxy paper that proudly displayed the name: Black.
The Black Crayon contained the colors of every other Crayon and was given special knowledge and insight to help heal chipped and broken Crayons. As the Black Crayon was pulled from the Great Rainbow, there was a strand of radiant light that still connected the new Crayon to the rainbow. Into this strand of light the Great Creator lifted the YELLOW Crayon, so that the broken tip was surrounded by a sparkling, glowing aurora. When the YELLOW Crayon stepped out of the light, she was healed. Her conical tip was again perfect in form.
But the Great Creator was worried. “These Crayons are fragile and vulnerable. If I leave them alone on this mountain they may again become damaged, perhaps beyond repair.”
So from the clay of the mountain the Great Creator formed Eight Giants and gave them instructions to protect the Crayons and their Crayon children both now and forevermore. And these Giants obeyed the Great Creator and for eight times eight generations, the Giants carefully caRED for the Crayons and their Crayon children. And the Great Creator watched from the First Cloud with a beaming smile and said, “This is very good.”
But as each generation passed, the voice of the Great Creator became harder and harder for the Giants to hear. They forgot about the burst of light and the First Cloud. They ignoRED the beauty of the Great Rainbow. And the Giants became more and more aware of how much strength and power they had … and how fragile and vulnerable the Crayons were.
A time came when, instead of protectors of the Crayons, the Giants became masters of the Crayons, and turned the Crayons into their servants, or perhaps even slaves. When Crayons were broken or chipped, they were no longer sent to a Black Crayon to receive the blessed healing touch. Instead they were cast aside, forgotten, neglected.
Chapter 3
The Giants separated the colors, one from another, and began to produce Crayons en masse in great craft shops on different Mountains. BLUE Crayons were produced on one mountain. YELLOW Crayons on another mountain. And RED Crayons on yet another mountain.
The Giants even started mixing colors together, so that there were first 16, then 24, then 48, then 64, and, at times, even 128 different colors, each produced in a different craft shop. Soon the enterprising craft shops began to produce smaller Crayons that were easier to package and transport. But these smaller Crayons were even more fragile and vulnerable than the Original Eight.
So now Crayon children were born in craft shops where they slept in crates and, for the first few cycles of their lives, in these huge craft shops, they only saw Crayons of their own color. When a batch of Crayons was 3 cycles old, and sufficiently developed, a wagon would arrive at the craft shop and they were forcibly separated from their mothers and fathers, their grandfathers and grandmothers, and sent to an educational center, quite often in a one-room schoolhouse. But the Crayons did not receive an education at this school. They were only there to serve the needs of the children of the Giants. They were all tossed together in crates or tin BOXes. And the broken, chipped and torn Crayons lay there suffering in the midst of the brand new, young Crayons.
Crayons of a similar color tended to try to stick together in these crates and tin BOXes, whenever possible. Growing up, they had only known Crayons of one color. Now they were forced to live in the midst of other colors in a very new and terrifying environment. So fights erupted in the midst of these crates and tin BOXes, often tucked away overnight in the closets and coatrooms of darkened classrooms. They were terrified during the day, clutched in the clumsy hands of the children of the Giants. But the lonely nights could be even more terrifying. In some places their fights became battles and battles became wars. And many, many crayons were maimed, broken, and even discarded in these wars.
To this day, no Crayon knows exactly how many colors there once were, nor how many mountains, nor how many craft shops. No inventory was ever kept of which Crayons were sent to which schools for Giant Children. But thanks to the mercy of the Great Creator, we have learned the importance of remembering and recording our history, even the great tragedies.
The Great Creator watched all of this unfold, and from the First Cloud, a rain of sorrow began to fall upon the mountains. Her beloved Crayons were acting more and more like their Giant overlords, separating themselves from each other, competing with each other, even declaring war upon each other. Each color was contending with others to determine who was the greatest. And the cost of these battles, especially for fragile and vulnerable Crayons, was horrendously high.
Chapter 4
So with great sorrow, from the clay of the Mountain the Great Creator formed The First BOX. The BOX was designed to gather Crayons of different colors together and help them form a family: to protect them from the dangerous power of the Giants, to keep them from being broken needlessly and to teach them to care for each other. Many BOXes contained only eight Crayons, some sixteen, some twenty-four, others forty-eight, and still others sixty-four. Larger BOXes had sleeves of 12 or 16 Crayons, to help preserve the feeling of a family, an extended family, in the midst of a diverse community.
Then, from the radiant light of the Great Rainbow, the Great Creator pulled a Ninth Crayon, still perfect in form but smaller in size, and still coveRED with waxy paper, but shyly displaying a simple name: white. While the Black Crayon brought healing because he contained the colors of every other Crayon, the White Crayon contained the color of the First Cloud, combining all of the colors of the Great Rainbow. And into The BOX, into every BOX of Crayons, the Great Creator placed a white crayon … whose purpose was to draw all of the other Crayons toward the safety of a caring community, toward the security of The BOX.
But the Giants did not trust these colorless crayons. They were uncertain where these crayons came from. No Giant had ever seen a Craft Shop for white crayons, nor a Mountain upon which the white crayons lived. The Giants also had little use for white crayons. Their mark was almost indiscernible on white or light coloRED paper, and was even hard to see on dark paper. The Great Creator made the First BOX just the right size for NINE Original Crayons: RED, YELLOW, BLUE, Green, Purple, Orange, Brown, Black, and white. But the Giants soon refashioned these BOXes so they only had room for Eight Crayons. No place was left for the colorless crayon.
The Giants did not prevent white crayons from being placed in larger BOXes. But other Crayons were often unsure of how to deal with the rarely used colorless crayons. The white crayon was designed to encourage peace, to draw the various colors together, to help them gather as a caring community. The white crayon was intended to honor all crayons through humble service. But many white crayons struggled to fulfill such a modest mission. Very often, because the colorless crayon remained virtually unused by the children of the Giants, the colorless crayon remained unbent and unbroken while the other, more colorful Crayons quickly became scarRED and bruised. And since the colorless crayons did not grow up separately in their own craft shop, or on Mountains of their own, they did not choose sides in the great battles and wars waged by the other Crayons. So they again remained unmaimed and undamaged.
Unfortunately, some colorless crayons seemed to think that their special status made them more important than other Crayons. Some claimed their whiteness made them somehow better, superior, perhaps even more holy. So, because of the haughty attitudes of a few, resentment among the other, more colorful Crayons gradually grew toward ALL colorless crayons. Laws were often passed, restricting the rights of colorless crayons on the Colorful Mountains.
Despite the growing hardships they often faced, most colorless crayons have tried to faithfully fulfill the mission originally given to them by the Great Creator, to serve and support and assist. We pray that one day, this noble mission of the colorless crayon may be fully REDeemed and the generational bitterness ended. But until that day comes, the Great Creator mourns, and the First Cloud gently weeps.
Chapter 5
Of course, the Giants seemed to love the idea of The BOX. They discoveRED that Crayons were far easier to ship to the Giant classrooms in BOXes. Since The BOX made things much more orderly and economical for them, they did not ask where the BOXes came from. And they used The BOXes to serve their own purposes … but also, in the end, to serve the purposes of the Great Creater.
And verily, The BOX became the vehicle through which the Great Creator stayed in constant communication with her beloved Crayons. For in The BOX, in every BOX of Crayons, there is now a Crayon Bible, too small for even the children of the Giants to find …. But large enough for a broken Crayon to lean upon.
And the Crayon Bible reminds us how to connect with the Great Creator and the power of the Cloud: to promote healthy growth for all Crayons and healing for those Crayons who are broken and torn.
Some even find hints in the Crayon Bible and suggestions on how to encourage peace, amend injustice, and promote unity and togetherness. In some BOXes we can trust the voice of a reverential white crayon to help. Unfortunately, in many BOXes we cannot.
The battles have not ended. The wars have not stopped. Crayons are still fighting with each other. And trust is difficult to form between Crayons of different colors. But a change is happening. And there is a reason to hope.
But maybe that is the way of all things. For the Crayon Bible is here to help us hope.
Hope for each Crayon. Hope for every Crayon. Hope for all Crayons.
Of every size and color.
Praise be to the Cloud.
Praise be to the Rainbow.
Praise be to the Great Creator.
May we one day all find peace.
On every Mountain.
Amen.