Louis was a misunderstood human being who was quite different from everyone else. He looked, walked and acted different from the rest of the human population. His family thought he was mentally handicapped. He was born in a time when people did not understand about diseases like they do today. He was labeled “terrible” and “cold” because he lived in his own silent world. The daily verbal accusations flied like bullets piercing Louis deeply bringing him pain and discomfort. Who’d know it? He didn’t know how to respond to the attacks. No one knew the inner workings of Louis’s mind, not even Louis, simply because he did not have the ability to communicate to the outside world. Louis had what today is called “autism”.

 Life was not easy for Louis Cornwell, here was a human being trapped in his body who could not reach out; he lived a lonely, isolated existence. If he hurt, loved or felt any of the many emotions other people felt no one would know, He could not communicate because his brain would not allow him to. He would try to talk with his family or other people but he never could. He was gangly teen well over six feet tall, with long legs and long arms, ungraceful in his movements and so awkward in social settings.  He would freely express his bodily functions anywhere at any time. He could not comprehend that you did those types of personal things in private not public.

People would pretend like he did not exist in public outings because they were so ashamed of his unusual behaviors. His classmates would slap him and kick him. Throwing him to the ground like a piece of wadded up trash in public. They treated him like some kind of a freak who didn’t belong with the rest of the “normal” population. One time a young lady alerted a nearby policeman screaming “Get this cold, terrible animal away from me he’s bothering me and touching me in the wrong places.”  Louis was just being Louis and doing nothing to endanger the young woman; but the policeman brutalized him right there on the street and arrested him for being a public “pervert”.

He ushered him to jail then proceeded to beat him to within an inch of his life. His excuse Louis molested that young lady on the street and he has to pay for it. Louis was taken to the hospital for emergency care and he almost died from his injuries. Nevertheless, when Louis’s family rushed to the hospital and interrogated the police about the beating the police had a fabricated excuse all ready.  Their excuse: He attacked the arresting officer and he had to “defend” himself so Louis would not jeopardize his life. Louis was incapable of violence he didn’t even know how to defend himself. The time Louis was born in these types of abuses were tolerated because there was no public awareness about the plight of people like Louis.

Louis recovered from his injuries never realizing what had happened to him because of his “mental illness”. He had no advocates in his young life and seemed destined to be treated like an animal the rest of his life. Fortunately, the Lord hadn’t forgotten Louis and sent one of Louis’s teachers into his life while he was recovering from his beating in the hospital. The young man’s presence calmed Louis and a very special bond developed between them. The teacher treated Louis like a human being for the first time in Louis’s life. Eventually, the young man taught Louis how to communicate by writing. The young man spent hours reading the bible to Louis, through the reading, Jesus, opened Louis’s heart to his love.  Louis came to know the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. The Lord was the only One who could break into Louis’s life and what a breakthrough He made!

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm149:14