Sanctity of Life Sunday

Today is a day set aside to recognize the sanctity of human life and to remember the more than 40 million tiny lives lost to abortion in the 33 years since Roe v. Wade. It was a special day for our family because today we celebrated Owen's baby dedication at our home church, along with several other families. In so doing, we publicly recognized the private commitment we had already made, to raise our son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Another thing that made today special was briefly sharing with our church family that Sanctity of Life Sunday can be about more than just beginning-of-life and end-of-life issues ... it can also be about celebrating adoption! We shared a very brief Powerpoint presentation entitled "God's Heart for Orphans."

Many Christians, myself included, have looked at adoption as a wonderful way for infertile couples to start a family. But I believe God’s word teaches that adoption is not only for those couples who cannot have children biologically. Adoption is about the very heart of God! And if God cares for the fatherless, then we must all care for the fatherless. In our world today, that means 5.5 million orphans in Africa … 3.5 million orphans in Asia … 1.5 million orphans in Eastern Europe … and the numbers go on and on.

James 1:27 says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction …” Children are afflicted in our world today. In the African country of Liberia, a little girl who is not adopted into a family will most likely enter a life of prostitution by the age of twelve, just to have food to eat and clothes to wear. Infant mortality rates are so high, and medical care is so non-existent, that adoptions of babies under a year old must be processed as quickly as possible just to give these infants a chance at survival. And in our own backyard, here in the United States, 135,000 children languish in foster care, just longing for a forever family. We have the chance to not only offer these children a family, but also the hope of Jesus Christ!

I close with this wonderful glimpse at the very heart of God, from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 24 ...

"When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow."