Life is a gift from God, and its potential is created from the moment of conception. With that recognition also comes the acceptance that life is eternal. The sojourn of that life within the womb or within an earthly existence may be very brief or it may extend for decades. Length of years does not determine the existence of life, nor does it validate or invalidate the value of that life within the heart of the God who gave it. Every life is known by God and every life has eternity before it. For the believer and for the youngest of lives that are incapable of believing, the grace of God brings about an eternity fashioned by the promises of God that is vibrant with His own eternal presence. For those of you who may question the grace that God bestows on the youngest of lives, let me offer the words of John MacArthur. “Infants have no merit by which anyone could claim they deserve heaven. In fact, because of their guilt and corruption, they are in need of redemption, but their salvation is paid for by the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross, in which He bore the wrath of God not only for all who could believe, but also for those who could not believe.” John applies the truth of his words to aborted infants, to those whose lives end prematurely with miscarriage or neonatal death, to those who die as very young children who cannot understand the concepts of sin and salvation and their implications, and even to those who chronologically reach a much older age, but still are young children in their ability to comprehend. And John can also clearly show that the grace given does not differentiate between infants or children of non-believing parents and those who do believe.Because of God’s grace, any parent of these infants or young children who are taken from earthly arms because of death, can fully know the truth that their child is embraced by the arms of God within His, and the child’s, eternal home. Having that certainty needs to also give us as moms the capacity to answer the query so often voiced by other moms who are just getting to know us, “How many children do you have?” For myself, as difficult as sometimes it can be to re-visit that personal loss, I need to be able to say, “I have four children. My husband and I raised three sons, but we also have a daughter in heaven who died shortly after birth.” There is much comfort for a parent in those words, but there is still more.A statement has been made to the one who is listening. Heaven is real. Life is eternal. Life begins at conception, and every life, matters to God. Abortion destroys a God-given life. Early death is a tragedy with heart-rending consequences, but God’s grace embraces that child even while God’s grace is offered to the mom who suffers the pain, the guilt, the void, or the confusion of that loss. A stronger pro-life statement cannot be given. – Bev
(Related Bible reading: Mark 10:13,14; Psalm 22:9,10; 2 Samuel 12:22,23)
