Why Sea Otters Hold Hands and Why the Church Needs to Know

Every night, before going to bed, sea otters do two things. They find a seaweed or kelp forest to bed in and they find their mate’s paw. As they fall asleep, they clasp their paws together. And why? To keep from drifting apart in the night. Because of tides and currents, they don’t have to kick or swim to be separated from each other; all they have to do is not pay attention. Without entangling themselves in seaweed, or holding their little paws together, a sea otter might very well wake up surrounded by nothing but water, their mate nowhere to be found. 

But why does this matter for the church? 

For decades, without hardly anyone in the church seeming to notice, the church and people with disabilities have been slowly drifting apart.  

No church plans to exclude people with disabilities. Virtually no church is actively swimming away from people with disabilities. But without paying attention, they are drifting. And at some point, they will wind up at opposite ends of the horizon. 

The question is not whether churches should minister to people with disability. 

When Christ commanded his followers to “go and make disciples,” there was no exclusion clause that exempted them from making disciples of people with disabilities. People with disabilities are already a part of every church’s mission! 

Rather than asking, “should our church do disability ministry?” we need to ask, 

“How will our children’s ministry include kids with disabilities?” 

“How do our community groups welcome people with disabilities?” 

“Does our worship service easily accommodate people with disabilities?” 

“Are our ministry teams seeking the God-given gifts of people with disabilities?” 

“How does our church help people with disabilities understand that Christ loves them enough to die for them?” 

We need to work backwards from the assumption that if Christ loves someone, our church does too. If Christ wants a relationship with someone, our church does too. If Christ values someone, our church does too. If Christ has called someone to be his disciple, we want to walk with them, too. 

While the strength of an otter’s grip is enough to keep drift from happening, closing the gap once drift has occurred requires more effort. 

If your church has allowed the disability community to drift away, will you make the effort to close the gap? 

Because Christ thought it was worth dying on the cross to win the hearts of people with disabilities, are you willing to find those who have drifted away?