Book Review: Dancing with Max

Book Cover

It's been a while since I posted, and this book review speaks of something I have been pondering about for quite some time.  See, more than just the physical, mental, social and emotional development for my son R, just as in important, if not more for me, is his spiritual development.

I have posted before about how we go about teaching R about God.  I've also posted some previous reviews on Christian books tackling special needs parenting and ministry.  But I will confess, there have been times I wondered if anything we tell R about God and Jesus even resonate in his mind.  There have been anecdotes that frighten me, because ASD minds are so literal, that some claim that they cannot seem to grasp the concept of a God who cannot be seen, touched, or heard, that many of them just reject the concept of God altogether.

So I went looking for more books to read, hoping to find something.  And I found this upon the recommendation of Christianity Today.

Author Emily Colson is the daughter of the late Charles Colson, most famous for his involvement in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, and the founder of Prison Ministries.  She is the mother of Max, who was diagnosed as moderate to severely autistic in the 1950s or 60s.

In Dancing with Max, Colson chronicles her experience with Max throughout his birth, his childhood, teenage years and into adulthood.  She expresses the emotional ups and and downs she went through, struggling to put Max in the proper school program, fighting to meet with experts of the time to see what she could do to help her son.

There were so many things she shared that I related with, the fear of my son being judged for his condition, being discriminated against, and even being made fun of.  I reeled in horror as Colson recounted how one expert, after inspecting her home, recommended that a certain closet be fixed with a lock, and that should Max become "non-compliant", she was to immediately lock the boy in said closet.

But it was Max's growth in church that really got to me.  I've always wondered what goes through R's mind when he goes to church, when he listens to the songs that we sing, and as he listens to the stories told at Sunday School.  And what Max had was amazing, that environment of acceptance from the people in Colson's church, not berating her for her son's quirks, and just accepting and loving Max as he is.

How I wish more churches and Christian schools here are like that!  I'm so blessed that the church I attend has been very accepting of R, to the point that his Sunday School teacher has even spoken with his OT to figure out how to handle him in class.  We're not perfect, so it's not to say we weren't told off by some of the older members when R would disrupt service now and then, but since the official diagnosis people have been more patient with him and us.

I hope that R would one day grow up to love Jesus as much as Max does, despite the autism.  Nothing would make my heart happier than that.

Dancing with Max gets 5 stars from me.  It's very easy to read, as it took me only one evening to finish the whole thing.  Yet despite its seeming ease, there's a lot of gems in there that has gladdened this mother's heart.

This book's physical copies can be purchased via its publisher Zondervan for US$16.99 (PHP 907.16), Book Depository for US$14.99 (PHP 800.38), or electronic copies via Apple iBooks for US$3.99 (PHP 213.04) and Google Play Books for US$8.68 (PHP 463.34).