A friend told me of a couple who aborted their baby. Physicians had told them that their unborn child was likely to have birth defects that would complicate his life and so they ended it. As he related this story, set in juxtaposition to his own story of grief over a lost son, I wanted to be angry, but I could only feel profound sadness. What kind of world has this become where only the 'perfect' are valued? (Who can lay claim to perfection, anyway?) How have we come to be so deceived by beauty that we would think that ending the life of a tiny one, still in the protective womb of his mother, is a choice that we could or should make?
This story stayed with me all day, making me think long and hard about how I treat others. Do I love the unlovely, lift up the broken or do I throw away people whom I have concluded are 'defective?' In a loveless world, am I a person who loves, and in that, do I reflect the great Love that found me in my broken state? It isn't just aborted babies that bear witness to the brutality of our utilitarian society.
The legions of kids with eating disorders who are willing to starve themselves to death in pursuit of a 'perfect' body give witness to our worship of an illusionary perfect self.
The inmates in our burgeoning prison populations, people that are thrown away by society becoming 'non-persons' to the rest of us because they are 'defects,' are witness to our failure to reach for answers that recognize the broken dignity of our brothers. Locking up a drug addict is an easy response, but it is not a real answer to the problem.
The hateful words that spew out of talk radio and the 24/7 TV news channels should alarm us because they polarize people. Labels that are hung on others of differing political or religions persuasions cause us to write off people who see the world differently as 'stupid' and therefore not worthy of a serious dialogue.
$Billions spent to build military machines whose sole mission is to kill people efficiently are evidence that we do not see others in this world as our brothers and sisters. How many wars must humanity wage before we learn that violence is the sire of more and greater violence?
The Bible says, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:26-27, NIV) The 6.5 billion souls that share this planet with you and me are the creative work of God, bearers of His image, worthy of dignity and respect. Yes, evil has marred that image. There is brokenness of body and spirit that obscure the image of God. The message of Christ Jesus is that the broken image is not a reason to reject, but a reason to love. God did not abort his relationship with humanity because of our rebellion, our pride, and our pursuit of other gods. Instead, "God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." (Romans 5:8, The Message)
Love is hard! Hate is easy! Love demands involvement, self-sacrifice, identification with those who suffer. Hate allows me to demean another, to depersonalize, to withdraw my concern, even to kill and sanction killing!
You may disagree with some of my conclusions in this TFTD, but would you take this word from God's Word into your thoughts for today?
Invite the Holy Spirit to make God's image, as seen in the face of people with whom you live, more clear. And as you see others as 'children of God' will you love them, as He does? I will, will you?
"Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other." (1 John 4:7-11, NLT)
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