“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”
We talk a lot about human life in terms of abortion. We talk about why God values the lives of the unborn. There are protests and signs and lots of press coverage. We talk about the sacredness of all life. But in this rhetoric, we leave out a lot of life, entire segments of the population.
We leave out the homeless and the hurting, those in prison, the alcoholic, the mother afflicted with a mental health condition. What about the abused child or the dirty child or the child that beat up your child? What about the lonely girl, the tired girl, the gay child? What about the screaming bigots and racists? What about the family member who you don’t talk to because you said it was o.k.? Do you pick and choose whose life gets the title of sacred? Are you God?
The sacredness of life. It is all life. It is the people we don’t like, or turn away from or make excuses about. It is the life we read about in the paper but do nothing about. It is the tears we don’t shed after our morning coffee. It is the person we see next to us in church, in tears, who we don’t turn to. Are you a part-time Christian, a Sunday attender, a picker and a chooser? Do you play with bible verses because you’re more versed than that? Are you doing “ministry,” but neglecting your family? Are you concentrating on the masses and droves of people that could be “saved” rather than the one right next to you? Are the small things just to small for you? Big screens and fancy suited preacher, ornate church, your weekend ministry, pamphlets, no eye to eye contact, no hug or hand shake, no connection, no nothing.
If you aren’t connected, if you don’t see the truth that ALL life is sacred, you have missed the point. You have missed the love. You have missed the hope that is Jesus Christ. You shouldn’t have joined the religion of outcasts.
In your highways and byways, and everyday life, you have completely missed the mark. You are preaching your own gospel, I see it everyday.
“Let us declare that God is dead, then we ourselves will be God.”
JESUS of NAZARETH, Pope Benedict XVI
I can’t help but think of so many more than the unborn. That God’s love and reach extends so much farther than that. That the Genesis telling of being created in His image becomes so cliché when I see it on products for $9.99 plus tax. That being “saved” doesn’t mean God threw you a life -line because He loves you any more than He does the person you can’t forgive. That I am not “saved,” I am free; I am free because He released me from the captivity of my own sin… I couldn’t save myself from myself.
The next time you think about the sacredness of life, think about the people you love the most- your wife or mother, your daughter, your very closest friend. All human life has such value, because at one time the people you hate were one of these, or maybe they still are one of these. If someone has breath in them, they are precious to God. Imagine the person you hate, imagine their breath, that is the God we worship that lives inside them.
To anyone who is reading this that has ever been hurt by someone who claims Christianity, let me say I am sorry. You are so very precious and beautiful, and the God of the universe loves you as He made you. I extend my hand out to you in love and peace, honoring your life for who you are. May God bless you in ways you never fathomed, and may you always feel welcome at my table.
Come over and eat anytime with me at There’s Something About Mary
-Mary
Church Set Free 
“Are the small things just to small for you?”
Mary, I love this post (and the song is one I popped back to you as it began playing – I heard it recently but cannot remember where) – thank you. And that one line got me. How no one – follower or not – seems content with changing just one small thing. Always the big change – the big numbers – and that always de-personalises de-humanises de-souls each of us in some way. Every time the numbers need a label – we distance ourselves.
I want to be a great follower!! 🙂
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A great follower indeed! Let it start in me, let it start in me, there’s a change a ‘coming let it start I’m me!
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The thing many people forget is that even with Jesus, it didn’t START with the masses. If you can’t be a “discipler” of the smallest one closest to you then you CAN’T even begin to make a difference in the masses! We need to remember to LOVE in ALL things and in all ways, but we are still in a battle with our own flesh more so than with any one or anything around us. Only with the power of the Holy Spirit, submitted to HIS will, are we able to accomplish the type of Love that was the benchmark that identified the early church as something different. Without that kind of love in action again today, there is nothing that draws a “searcher” to Christ.
But do not mistake true Godly love for some compromising, mushy feeling that does all and accepts all. Remember it was Jesus out of love that had to chastise the “sons of thunder” and the same Jesus who looked squarely at Peter and said, “get behind me satan for your plan is not mine nor the Father’s Who sent Me.” It probably made Peter question Jesus’ love for Him, but it sure snapped him out of his selfish concerns that were leading his thoughts at that moment.
Good Post and one we all need to remember, meditate on and take to heart.
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When we are not love in Him we can’t truly be love to others. I agree, it’s not the mushy kind of love, but one that goes beyond all comprehension. But if we’re not there, it shows in what we do how we act towards others. I like everyone else am a work in progress.
Thank you for your beautifully insightful comment!
M
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