Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou comest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
II Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”
James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Based on the social, political, and historical context of the day in which we live, we are seeing a phenomenon that is unprecedented in Twenty-first Century America – a laser-like focus on the precious value of life and the well-being of even the most feeble among us. Daily we see tallies of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with the latter being dominated by those with weakened underlying health conditions. It is as if we have been awakened to the fragility of life, and the importance of genuine care and concern for every single human being.
The value of life has not changed since 2019. It has been a precious gift of God throughout human history. It is valuable regardless of whether your life is characterized by infirmity or vitality, invalidity or athleticism, ignorance or intellectualism. It is worthy of the deepest concern, whether you are old or young, unborn or born, feeble or vibrant. If anything, God has placed a special premium on those who modern society has often neglected, demeaned, and discarded.
PLEASE PRAY THAT, AS A SOCIETY, WE WOULD PERMANENTLY INTERNALIZE THE CRITICAL LESSON THAT EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS. At some point a running tally of the deaths of the weakest among us will be removed from regular public view. Even then, may we as a society remember the important lesson of early 2020 that life is a precious gift of God that must be valued, esteemed, and protected.
