A Different Set of Feet

I wiggle on the floor and reach upward.  My hands are now on the armrests of my chair.

Pressing down on the armrests, I hoist myself up and sit down.

I then fastened myself in the chair and adjusted the leg rests.

My chair is not the kind of chair that you use to relax.  My chair has wheels attached to it.  Two large wheels in the rear for moving and two smaller ones in the front.

When I am out, I get a lot of different looks from people.  Whoever looks at me, I give them a big smile.  They may feel sorry for me or may try to help me.  It doesn’t matter.  I am happy with any kind of interaction I receive from others.

When people get past the chair that I am sitting in, they see that I am a person, just like they are.  The only difference is that I have a different set of feet.  Being paralyzed from the waist down, I can not use the feet I was born with.

Regardless, this doesn’t stop me from being the person that I should be.  I could feel sorry for myself but I don’t.  Somebody told me that God put me in this chair for a reason.  And you know what? I totally agree with them.  I have no regrets for the accident that happened.  I do thank God that everyone involved in the accident is still alive, and I am one of them.

Attached to the back of my wheelchair is my big bag of essentials.  Every once in a while, I get a person that asks about the bag.  I’m not rude about the person who asks at all.  I just tell them.  That bag has things that I need.  Besides the typical things that a wheelchair bound person carries, the most important thing that I need is my bible.  I usually tell that person about that when they ask about the bag.

The conversation then either goes one of two ways.  Sometimes, the conversation ends right there.  The person then thanks me and leaves.  Other times, the person is a little bit more open.

Usually it starts with myself.  They ask me how I can be so happy if I’m in that wheelchair.  I tell them that God has given me a reason to be happy and that smile is for them.  I then ask them if they know Jesus.  For me, that question is very important because I was given a second chance.  Before the accident, I didn’t believe that there was a God.  If they tell me that they don’t know Jesus or believe in God, I tell them that I was in the same place myself, and that they should give him a chance.

This is how it was with me.  After the accident, I was very angry and frustrated.  I wondered to myself, if there was a God, why did he allow me to suffer like this?  A friend then told me that he was real.   I totally disagreed with them, but they insisted.  They challenged me to ask him, “if you are real, prove it!”

So that night, that’s what I did.  I asked him that if he was real to prove it.  It didn’t take long for this to happen.  I suddenly started to cry.  I was filled with this feeling that I never felt before.  It was love, and I knew that it came from him.  Granted, I have felt love before, but I have never experienced it in this way.

After that, I repented and got saved.  All my anger and frustration was gone.  I then knew that he put me there for a reason, and that I was going to be his spokesperson.

If anyone is still standing there after I shared this story with them, I noticed that a few of them start to cry.  It’s mostly the women that cry when they hear this story.  They walk up to me, kneel down, and give me a hug.  As for the rest of them, they thank me for the story and they walk away.

My chair may not be the kind of chair that you have, but I see it as a throne.   I am blessed to be alive and blessed to be given a second chance with this new set of feet.

So if you ever see me,  please take the time to chat.  I would really appreciate the conversation.  Yes, I am in a wheelchair.  But I am a person, just like you.  And I look forward to meeting you.

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©2012  K. L. Walker