The Vulnerable Everywhere
More than the unborn are at our mercy
This was first published in the SC Baptist Courier.
https://baptistcourier.com/2022/01/wholly-healthy-vulnerable-all-around-us/
It is appropriate that we, as believers, protect the rights of the unborn. We do this because we recognize that their lives have intrinsic value, in the image of God, as soon as they come into existence at conception. Life itself matters before breath, speech, communication or the other trappings we associate with it.
And yet, all around the country are those whose lives also matter and who are almost as helpless as the unborn. They may be infant or senior or anywhere in between. They are those who suffered birth injury with devastating neurological consequences. They are those who endured trauma and who are left paralyzed, unable to talk or move due to accident, assault or the ravages of combat.
Others suffered stroke or infection, or even progressive debilitating diseases that leave them often unable to engage in what most of us see as the ‘normal’ aspects of life. I see them in the hospital. Sometimes their lives are spent lying on one side, arms and legs contracted. Their communication may be two words or blinks. And they are often unable to communicate even their discomfort, sorrow, or boredom.
But, if there is anything that becomes evident in the pursuit of medicine and its immersion in the human condition it’s that we don’t know nearly as much as we think. And just as we can scarcely understand what life really is, we hardly know the inner reality of the compromised, broken lives that populate homes, nursing facilities and hospitals across the land.
It may be that these people are graced by God with joys unspeakable, with visions unimaginable, and with simple pleasures of food, warmth and touch. And certainly with the same hopes that every human being that has lived on earth whether or not they can vocalize them. Even consciousness itself is a great mystery to scientists and philosophers, so those who seem not to think at all may dwell on a plane far more fascinating than we can grasp. Even if not, we can’t know what the Kingdom of God will hold for them.
The point being, the value of life extends from conception to eternity and applies at every step along the way. And when we interact with those of God’s children who live lives far different from our own, lives we too easily ‘tsk, tsk’ as tragic, we would do well to be humble, and offer whatever love and support we can.
We owe it to their creator, to them, as well as to their parents and family, living or dead, to offer comfort and advocacy. We should connect with them as humans, not items. We can love them no matter the degree of their interaction with us.
Life is valuable because God indwells and gives every life value. And the unborn are only one group that deserves our love and protection in a world filled with the vulnerable.