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National Sanctity of Human Life Day was Sunday. My mother-in-law (Hey Mrs. Linda! I love you!) is very involved in Right to Life and a variety of services and ministries dedicated to revoking abortion laws and caring for moms who would otherwise seek out abortions. She is incredibly passionate about it. Sometimes that passion comes out in flashes of anger – as we are all prone to do when we get fired up, especially over life and death issues. I truly believe she would start a fist fight if challenged on the issue of abortion. To her, it’s worth fighting for.
I agree with her that abortion is wrong. It’s a clinical/medical term used to hide the painful reality that out of fear, the world has made it legal and socially acceptable to kill the unborn for convenience sake. It is tragic. The statistics are numbing and painful. But like all sin, it is forgivable. It is redeemable.
The Sanctity of Human Life extends from conception to death. The life of the unborn – the life of an adopted teenager – the life of a prisoner – the life of a doctor who performs abortions – the life of a terrorist who plows through crowded streets for Allah – the life of a transgender person wanting to pick a bathroom at Target. All of these lives, every age, race and gender are SACRED.
Getting uncomfortable? Me too.
We all naturally look for that cut-off point. Jesus loved on Samaritans, prostitutes, tax collectors, Gentiles … He demonstrated the sanctity of human life OVER the punishment permitted in the law when he said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” As someone who has been following Christ to the best of my ability for nearly thirty years, I am guilty of frequently forgetting what it felt like to be without Jesus. I forget the sweet relief of realizing just how much He loves me. I forget the tortured loneliness and numbing emptiness where the Spirit of the Living God now resides.
Maybe those feelings are still fresh in your life – or perhaps you continually wrestle with them throughout life. That’s ok. King David wrestled with those very issues and from that pain we got the gift of the Psalms. In honor of the National Sanctity of Human Life Day, I want to remind you that YOU are wonderfully made. YOU are special. YOU are worth dying for. YOU are loved.
No matter who you are, you are sacred. Sanctified. Set apart for God.