Life.

We get caught up in the wrong arguments.  We dig ourselves into position.  We argue over which life is important, which life is most important.  We argue about when is a life a life.  We fail to pause on the important question of: Does life matter at all?  Of course Life matters would be the obvious answer, but we fail to let it frame our discussions.  We talk about whether life begins at conception or birth or somewhere in between.  Are we really so dull?  Does it matter?  We know how life happens right?  Can we ignore that a living breathing baby with the full rights of a human comes from a fertilized egg.  The miracle of how that happens is hard to accept, but not the evidence of the reality that it does indeed happen.  We fall short of the important discussions so we can argue the things we want.  We avoid the important distinctions and instead we have made "choice" more important than life itself.  

Deuteronomy 12
31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Ancient peoples sacrificed children to their "gods".  This practice was abhorred by the God of Israel.  But even in this practice we have a declaration of what is most precious.  A life is the most valuable thing you could offer.  In the context of burning your child alive to appease or gain favor this practice of sacrifice seems unthinkable.  We think ourselves so much more advanced today, but really isn't our child sacrifice just more efficient, more advanced, more full of justification.  At least the savages valued the lives they gave.  For them the sacrifice mattered because life mattered.  What matters to us is choice.  Within the mechanics of Pro-Choice and Abortion, we declare that convenience and choice outweigh life itself.  We are a society that says we are not willing to be burdened.  An ancient society sacrifices their children because of the inherent value of those children, foregoing the bonds of love and legacy.  We sacrifice millions of unborn because we fail to consider love, legacy or life itself.  What gets sacrificed is our conscious and the condition of our souls.  

I can fathom how abortion would seem like the best option, especially considering some of the heart wrenching circumstances of those that choose it.  However, to suggest that abortion is any kind of solution is absurd.  The damage done physically, mentally and emotionally to a woman and the culture she lives in is incalcuable.  As a society we should strive for the more.  It may very well be harder to bring these children into this troubled world and terrible conditions.  I can't argue that everything will be great if the unborn are given a shot.  There will be horrific outcomes.  But it is the more noble path.  It is a bold statement that says Life matters.  It is choosing Life over Death, even when we know the hard road ahead.  We are smart people that should work toward a real solution.  Abortion is not a solution.

Genesis 22
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Even for the most devout Christian, the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son is hard to take.  But buried not so subtly in this story is the story of Jesus Christ, God himself expressing the value of a life:  how much he values our lives, what the cost is to sacrifice and what lengths he is willing to go to save us.  

Genesis 22

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

On that mountain, instead of the sacrifice of Abraham's only son, God provided a sacrifice.  And God did so again in the offering of his only son.  Except in the case of Jesus the knife was not spared.  And Christianity only matters if Christ was resurrected.  Hope lies in the resurrection.  This is why we are able to choose the harder road, because we have hope in a risen savior.  It will be impossible to find a way for all of these lives to thrive, but if death is the only other option, let us choose life.  In the process we may find that our only choice in the hopelessness is to choose Christ himself.  In our God is the answer, the one who knows what sacrifice means and what it means to give his life and if we choose Life, "The Lord Himself Will Provide."

A woman that gives her child up for adoption or has an abortion has a terrible burden.  She must spend her life wondering about that child she gave up.  She must feel the pain of grief and loss and guilt.  But that's good isn't it?  Aren't these the reactions of what it means to be human, full of compassion and love?  Why should we try to eliminate this from our human experience?  I'm not a woman, I realize that I am speaking about things that I will never have a full understanding.   But I do know about loss.  I do know about the loss of an unborn child.  To suggest that this life had no value because it was unborn is unthinkable to me.  I do know about comfort, too.  These things are all very personal, which makes the existence of a personal savior all the more relevant.  Christ came to overcome these things.   Forgiveness is available to all.  Redemption is not dependent on the level of loss or vulgarity of the sin.  The possibility of Redemption is dependent on the one who is redeeming.  All we must do is turn to him to receive it.  We will all fall short, sometimes in really harsh and painful ways.  Those around us will fall short of God's expectations and our own.  Let's not let this be our determining traits.  But instead let us choose the noble path and retain hope that God Saves.