Old Testament
Isaiah 35:5-6
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
New Testament
Matthew 18:10-14
10 See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
11 For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.
12 “What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray?
13 If he finds it, most certainly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.
14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Isaiah’s vision is tender: eyes opened, ears unstopped, the lame leaping, the mute singing. It is not a slogan about effortless healing; it is the promise that God does not despise frailty, and that the world will not always be arranged against the vulnerable.
Jesus tells his disciples not to despise “one of these little ones”, and he speaks of the shepherd who goes after a single wandering sheep. The kingdom counts differently. It refuses the quiet arithmetic by which some are treated as too costly, too complex, too inconvenient to pursue.
In education, SEND provision is often where pressure shows first: time, staffing, budgets, patience. Yet Scripture will not let us talk about “needs” at a distance. As heirs of the King and subjects under his mercy, we ask for the imagination to see a child not as a problem to manage but as a brother to welcome. How would we want them treated if they were beside us at the Lord’s Table, overwhelmed and trying to be brave? Lord, give schools and families the help they need, and give your Church the gentleness and courage to stand near those who are easily overlooked, and not hurry past them.