I realized recently that if I ever have to move again I will need a separate truck just for all the stuff hanging on my walls. I have calendars, old post cards, inspirational sayings, nature scenes, my daughter’s diplomas, and so many pictures hanging on them. There are ones of high school reunions, family reunions, friends, Mom, Dad, Nana, my brothers, and most of all so many of my children. From baby pictures to ones taken just this last year there are the smiling faces of my children looking down on me from my walls as I walk through my house.

I noticed one of these just recently, a tiny one cut out from an old Polaroid photo. It was of my youngest son Casey as a baby. He was standing in the bathtub smiling happily. He wasn’t even two years old yet. I took off my glasses and put my face close to see it. There was a light in his eyes that shone through that photograph. I could see the beautiful soul within coming out of that picture. This was before the first signs of Autism appeared in him. This Autism would largely silence his speech, limit his learning, and make him dependent on us for the rest of his life. It would keep him from becoming the boy I dreamed he would be.

I felt the pain of regret and loss looking at that picture. But then I remembered just yesterday when he laughed and snuggled up to me while we watched something he liked on television. I looked into his eyes at that moment and saw that same light, that same love, that same beautiful soul that was in his baby picture. Autism might have affected his mind and changed his life but it never touched his soul. And I know now his beautiful soul is here for a purpose.

Like my son Casey, each one of us has a bright, beautiful, shining soul within full of love and light. God loves that soul too, completely and unconditionally. It is up to us, though, to let that soul out, to let it shine, to let it share its love with everyone, everywhere. May we always do so.