Every Child has a Gift

Matt Savage is a very cool cat. A jazz pianist for nearly 13 years now he has played with some of the best in the business. On many occasions he plays at the famed Blue Note in Manhattan but sometimes you may seen him play at a jazz joint on the beach in some remote posh club. Regardless of where and when he plays, Matt is considered a musical genius and oh, by the way, he just turned 15.

What people also don’t know about Matt is that he is an autistic savant. By the age of one he was playing piano and by two he was composing. Quiet and reserved when not at the piano, he prepares for a show just setting at the table slowly sipping water. When his name is called, Matt merely stands up and walks to the piano and starts to play. Immediately, the musicians accompanying him struggle to keep pace but within a short time smiles are on everyone’s faces, including those musicians that originally struggled to keep the pace. Matt is featured with famed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis occasionally. Marsalis says that “Matt is a modern Beethoven.”

As we learn more about Matt it only reinforces the gift that God gives to us daily. The gift of life and that every child’s face has value and can provide wonderment. Matt’s parents made a decision to keep him and bring him into this world. If his parents would have made the decision to abort Matt, we would have been denied the life of a musical genius.

In today’s growing trend of eugenics and manufacturing of babies in the laboratory, I wonder how many Matt’s will be vetted out the process and left to die or be terminated because of one imperfection. Our heavenly Father gives gifts in so many wondrous ways. My advice for our world and our country: “Stop trying to always be the driver. Sometimes you just need to go along for the ride. Yes it may have bumps and obstacles along the way, but the final destination will be the trip to remember.”