Maybe They’ve Never Seen Someone Without Feet
One of the most beloved traditions at Hope Heals Camp is the annual talent show. Our campers with disabilities sing, dance, strum, karate chop, and Rubix Cube for an audience that ardently celebrates their unique talents and differences. Every act ends with a standing ovation and every performer gets a glimpse of how deeply they are esteemed by God.
Jude Hill, who lost significant parts of both legs in a traumatic lawn mower accident, read an original poem at the talent show this summer. His family, who first attended Hope Heals Camp five years ago, have trudged through the darkest valleys of grief and shame. In 2021, the Hills came to camp as volunteers instead of campers, and generously offered their own story of suffering as a survival guide to campers in the thick of their hardest chapters.
With the help of his parents, Jude read the following poem:
Photo by Ashley Monogue
We shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies,
like if we are black or white.
We are all made in the image of God,
like in Genesis chapter two, verse twenty-five.
“And the man and his wife were both naked
and were not ashamed.
But when Adam ate the fruit,
then they saw they were naked.
And they were ashamed.”
Let’s put it this way:
Even if you have no feet,
don’t be ashamed if someone says something.
Like, “Gross, put your feet back on.”
Maybe they haven’t seen
someone without feet.
At just ten years old, Jude offered the antidote to shame to a crowd of four hundred misty-eyed people, most of whom were older than he and many of whom have typical bodies.
Through the unexpected teacher of pain, Jude has learned what most of us will never fully understand: we were all made in the image of God, and we don’t have to be ashamed.
During the sacred days of Hope Heals Camp—and in the year-round community birthed out of camp—transformative experiences like this one unfold every minute. The lines between those being served and those servings are blurred, and the binary of abled versus disabled is upended. We are an unlikely team bound together by our mission of disrupting the myth that joy can only be found in a pain free life.
Photo by Ashley Monogue
