Iris Grace

I was recently introduced to something absolutely amazing, inspiring, and incredibly adorable!

Iris Grace.

She is a little girl from the UK that has autism. Her mom writes a blog and runs a website about her and her incredible paintings. On the website (irisgracepainting.com) They sell Iris's paintings to help pay for her therapy and medical expenses. These are no finger paintings or random splatters on paper; they are truly art! For example...

"Octavia"
http://irisgracepainting.com/paintings/

When my friend Bethany told me about this little girl I immediately whipped out my laptop to check it out- a total sucker for warm fuzzy news stories. I looked through the website and marveled at her artwork- amazed that a little girl could do that! 

Later in the day I thought back to Iris' paintings and I decided to look at the blog posts to learn more about her (and how on earth she makes such beautiful paintings!) As I started reading though each post I felt more and more content. I cant explain why this little girl meant so much to me, I just felt happy that she was so pure and was not burdened by her autism. Before I read about Iris I, just like many others, viewed autism as a disorder. When Bethany told me that Iris had autism I felt sorry for her. As I read about Iris, about her violin, her cat Thula, her morning bike rides, and her love of African nursery rhymes I felt ashamed that I had ever pitied such a beautiful life. I kept reading and reading until I ran out of words. Then I sat back and thought about it for a second and I realized why I felt so content reading about her. God was trying to talk to me. He was speaking through Iris to help me understand that he made each and every one of us different for a reason. (That sounds so cliché but I've learned that things become cliché when they are said a lot- they are said a lot because they are true.) Through Iris's story it became clear to me that Iris's autism was not meant as a challenge from God. It was a gift.