January 14, 2005
Last week, I was deeply reminded of what Jesus said in John 13:20, “ I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts Me; and whoever accepts Me accepts the One Who sent Me.” While this certainly has to do with receiving the good news of Jesus Christ and entering into God’s great Salvation, it is also an admonishment for any who are Believers to humbly receive God’s love through the loving administrations of caring people.
For months of uncomfortable and perilous “expecting”, my family has been the object of a great outpouring of love and support from family, friends and church family. And then, the Thursday before last, as our new daughter arrived on the scene dangerously early, my wife’s doctor supportively walked with us through the difficult situation while nurses in the maternity area gently and attentively tended to our family. We know indeed that each loving gesture and every caring word was sent from Him. We thank Him for all those who had a part in the arrival of this wonderful new life.
Oh, and how we now celebrate this precious little girl! “Little hands and little feet; a fragile life when first we meet….” Naturally, we already knew our new addition in so many ways before she even “arrived.” Ultrasound pictures, for example, helped to introduce us. These “windows on the inner world” settled for us, by the way, the age-old question, “Do babies suck their thumbs in the womb?” In case the answer interests you, this one did. She also practiced gymnastics and did some occasional “kick-boxing” (much to my wife’s vexation). Also, all of our children occasionally had the hiccups in the womb, this little girl being no exception (much to my amusement).
Did you know that the Biblical perspective on life (Old Testament as well as the New Testament) is that all life is precious? Every life, even that in the womb, is an amazing work of God, a gift to the world that no one else has a right to mar or destroy.
Did I say a “Biblical perspective?” Absolutely! For does not the Scripture say in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” We are created in the image of God whether our bodies are sound and whole or crippled with disease. Black and white, male and female, we were created in the divine image, our first ancestor receiving the very breath of God and becoming a living soul.
Dear one, you also are marked with the image of God. What the world has done to deface that image in you with the horrid “graffiti” of hurt, hate, fear, and bitterness, cannot erase God’s image and the fact that you have unimaginable worth.
“Biblical perspective,” did I say? Truly! The Bible is God’s megaphone as He proclaims, “…before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (Jeremiah 1:5). Dear one, you have “God-given purpose” and a divinely appointed significance.
We live in such a strange age though. This is an age in which life is not really esteemed as all that important. It seems so bizarre to me to know that we live on the very brink of an era in which human embryos can be harvested for stem cells as though each tiny life were nothing more than a lab-grown culture of bread mold for penicillin.
But I don’t buy it. God doesn’t look at any human life as a commodity whether we’re speaking of slavery or aborted unborn children. Each life counts in God’s Book. “For You (oh, God) created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16).
How wonderful! How amazing! God knew you before you came to be! He saw you while your body was just taking shape in your mother’s womb! You have had value and purpose in the heart of God all along!
Many churches will be celebrating this Sunday the “Sanctity of Human Life”… the life of the healthy and the life of the sickly; the life of the wealthy as well as the life of the one who has no home; the life of the strong and the life of the crippled; the life of the seeing, the life of the blind; the life of the young and the life of the old; not to mention both the life of the born as well as the life of the unborn.
Each life is sacred, even the life that seems to have so little to give to our short-sighted and narrow-minded eyes. Each life is sacred, even when the world tosses it aside, calling it worthless and unwanted. Each life is sacred, each with a world of beauty inside just waiting to be tapped by God to show to the world. Each life is sacred, dear one… including yours.
(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past nine and a half years and is the pastor of Pathway Community Church. He and his wife are the parents of four children. He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
