Jonathan Colson, the 11-year-old who was gravely injured by a lightning strike at a Spotsylvania Little League field in June, has come home.

Yesterday, Jonathan and his family gathered with a crowd of more than 100 people at Salem Fields Community Church to celebrate the progress Jonathan has made since June 3.

That evening, just after Jonathan's Little League game had been called off because of the weather, a lightning strike took the life of his friend and teammate Chelal Gross-Matos.

The bolt left Jonathan lifeless on the ground.

He was taken to Mary Washington Hospital's trauma center, then to VCU Medical Center in Richmond, where he spent nearly a month, then to Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center in Charlottesville.

All along the way, Jonathan's parents, Judy and Mark Colson, were told that their son's progress was a miracle.

Since June, Jonathan has had to re-learn how to speak, eat, walk and use his hands.

His parents and others who know him say his attitude has been a big help in his recovery.

"For somebody to wake up and not be able to walk and not be able to talk, and not get frustrated about it is such a blessing," Judy Colson said.

Mark Colson said that at one point when Jonathan was at Kluge, he asked, "How long will I be like this?"

Mark told him he could expect two to three years of hard work to regain all of his abilities.

"He said, 'I can't be like this for two to three years, I got stuff I gotta do,'" Mark Colson said yesterday. "He sees things not as he can't do them, but as he wants to be able to do them again."

Jonathan came home Aug. 21. Yesterday he was walking around the auditorium at Salem Fields Community Church, shaking hands, greeting friends and urging everyone to cheer for his beloved Redskins, but he still faces a lot of hard work as he continues to recover.

That includes physical therapy sessions two or three times a week and swimming sessions at American Family Fitness with his father, who learned at Kluge how to lead Jonathan through special exercises.

Jonathan was to start his sixth-grade year at Post Oak Middle School this fall, so he works with teachers from the school for two hours a day at home to stay on top of things. Mark Colson said his son's biggest goal right now is to get back to school.

Through all his hard work, Mark Colson said, Jonathan talks regularly about Chelal Gross-Matos, his friend who was killed in the same tragic event that changed his own life forever.

"He's mourning for him still," Mark Colson said.

Yesterday's event brought together a lot of people who didn't know one another--and many who didn't know Jonathan before June.

Susan LeVine's son, Brandon, was playing on another baseball field the night Jonathan was injured.

"That night I kept hugging my son, because I knew it could have been my kid, too," she said.

She and Brandon sent Jonathan's story to the New York Yankees, and got back a baseball with a personal message and autograph from Yankees player Johnny Damon, which they brought to Jonathan yesterday.

Sonny Carson was Jonathan's coach last fall in his first season of youth football. He came to yesterday's event to bring Jonathan the jersey he would be wearing for this year's team.

"He's a great kid, with a great attitude," Carson said. "He should have been playing this year again with us."

Mark and Judy Colson know that Jonathan wants nothing more than to get back to doing all of the things he loved before he was injured.

But as Judy Colson said yesterday, the family has a lot to be thankful for.

"God allowed Jonathan to return to us," she said. "And for that, we are forever grateful."