Just the Right Time, Just the Right Place, Just the Right Child
A mother called Notgrass Company one day to talk about whether a certain curriculum would work with her daughter. As we chatted, I learned that her daughter enjoys cooking and is artistic, but her academic accomplishments are a few years behind “normal.”
It struck me that had her daughter been born into, say, a Native American tribe many years ago, she might have been one of the most respected girls in her tribe, trusted to care lovingly for her little brother and admired for the tasty meals she made and the beautiful art she created. A talent or lack of talent for academics might never have come up.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
But the daughter of the mother on the phone was not born into that society. She was born into ours, a society that values the ability to excel at academics more than the ability to cook wonderful meals and create art. What a shame. Let this idea sink in. Academics have not  been valued in the same way in every time and place. Other gifts really are important, too.
Of course, we know that the daughter of the mother on the phone was born at exactly the right time and exactly the right place. We also know that she was born with just the right gifts and talents and attributes.
One of the blessings in this girl’s life is that God gave her a mother who values the daughter God gave her, a mother who knows better than to get her standards from the world around her.
He made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation,
that they would seek God,
if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us.
Acts 17:26-27, NAAB