Do you Want to Keep It?

A few weeks ago, I was at the dentist having a root canal done.  I was zoned out and listening to the mindless chatter between the dentist and the dental assistant.  After some time, their conversation sparked my interest.  To sum up the conversation, the dental assistant was telling a story about her last pregnancy and said that it was a complete surprise.  She had gone to the doctor for a regular checkup and was surprised to find out that she was pregnant and four months along.  The part of the story that really caught my attention was when her doctor asked, “do you want to keep it?”  She was as shocked as I was that the doctor even asked that question.

Do you want to keep it?  This question perfectly exemplifies the culture that we live in.  We live in a culture of death, where life is seen as something that is easily discardable.  Our culture tells us that if there is any suffering, pain, or inconvenience involved, then that life is not worth it.  Our culture says, “don’t worry, we can get rid of it for you.”  Whether it is a baby in the womb, waiting  to take his first breath and remind us all of the beauty of life, or a terminally ill patient fighting each day and reminding us to remain hopeful and trust in God, our culture tries to strip the value of these lives and decide which lives are worth living and which are not.

As a whole, we need to start treating life like the precious gift that it is, from conception to natural death.  We need to live in a way that shows that life matters.  If our culture believed in the sanctity of life, then doctors would never dare ask a mother if she wants to keep her baby.  If our culture viewed life as a gift, then patients who are seriously ill would never be told that they don’t have purpose anymore.  If we are going to talk about the value of life, we need to look at the beginning and end, times in which people are most vulnerable.  If life inside the womb does not have value (it does), why would life outside of the womb have value?  If life at the end stages with old age or sickness does not mean anything, why would life in the young and healthy stages mean anything?

​Regardless of the stage of human life, location of  human life, or health of human life, it has value.  Human life reflects the presence of God.  Each life has value from the moment God calls that life into existence.  Pray that our culture will stop seeing life as a choice and start seeing it as a gift, beginning in the womb and ending with natural death.