On a scale from emotionless to feeler, I have all feelings for pretty much everyone on this earth.
I see a homeless person on the street, and I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach. A woman who throws herself at any available guy, and I feel her insecurity. A young teen experiencing a pregnancy, I experience her wide pang of emotions.
My heart feels to the uttermost of its’ being. Not sure exactly why I am wired that way. Some days it feels like a curse. Other days I am so thankful for it because I can understand.
Today is one of those days where it feels like a curse. My heart is heavy with the sorrow that this world is surrounded by.
Men, women, and children around the world suffering because they don’t have the money to buy food or purchase needed medication or the access to clean water.
Women all over the world being trapped in a difficult relationship because of an abusive husband.
Boys growing up without fathers.
Countries in utter turmoil and unrest. Wars. Famine. Catastrophes.
Each person, hurting.
And in the last few weeks, videos popping up about sweet, precious children dying. Their lives being sold for someone’s gain – being labeled as tissue and specimen. Being taken before their lives even have a chance to see light, to breathe air, to feel and hear and love.
Helpless beings without any ability to save themselves.
And we just sit here.
No, we allow it to happen even. We create laws to legalize it.
My heart cannot comprehend it.
In war it is almost an unspoken rule that if you are female or a child you are untouchable. If a person can kill a child, they have no soul. Without question, people damn them and scream profanities at them.
Please, please…someone tell me how this is different? Why is a baby who has not exited her mother’s womb fair game? Why are you praised for such a thing? Why is it acceptable?
Several people have told me that this is about freedom to choose and to not have government choose what is and what isn’t medically administered to a person. But, what about what is medically right for that baby? And when did doctorally supervised murder become medical?
That baby never had a chance to petition on the steps of our nations capitol. It never had the chance to scream out in pain, scream out and beg for mercy.
Mercy. Not getting what you deserve.
Grace. Getting what you don’t deserve.
Does one deserve to die because they don’t have a voice? In order to cry out for mercy, in order to cry out for grace, that assumes that you are deserving of a punishment, yet you receive the opposite. Usually one deserves to die because of wrong doing.
You receive mercy and grace when you are being condemned to death, yet you receive life.
Yet, these sweet infants are being condemned to death, undeservedly. They are being punished for the sins of their mother and father. They are crying out for grace and mercy, yet they have done nothing wrong.
Sound familiar?
I think Jesus knows exactly how these young ones feel. A man, undeserving of death, dies a murderers death. He is beaten, mocked, and brutally killed. His death being praised by the crowds.
These babies are brutally killed. Torn from limb to limb. Mocked (told they have no value…they are nothing but “tissue” and “specimen”). Praised by the people, praised by the crowd.
But thank God, Jesus defeats death. He has taken the place of you and I. He has died for us – given us grace and mercy.
When a day is so heavy and my heart aches for these babies and their mamas who will forever live without the sweet presence of their lives, I can turn to the Word.
James 5:7-12 was such a sweet reminder to me today.
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”
These verse are a sweet reminder that the Lord is coming and to be patient just as the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. We must wait trusting that the Lord’s completed work is just a season away from coming to fruition.
But, it doesn’t just tell us to wait twiddling our fingers. We are to wait as the prophets waited – proclaiming Jesus’ name. We are to wait as Job waited – bring glory to God through his adversity in steadfastness.
We are to wait in steadfastness remembering the purpose of the Lord: compassion and mercy. We are to establish our hearts in these truths knowing that one day the Judge will come.
Amen.
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