Life

Today I was home with just my three littlest.  

It felt like a day to do little kid's stuff, and the weather was perfect.

Who knew an old baby bathtub could be turned into a tiny splash pool, or water gun reloading station?

Elijah LOVES water.  He calls the sprinkler "rain" and it's pure joy.

It's the simple things.

Letting my anemic winter hardened soul soak up the colour and warmth. 

We've had so much rain this summer that our grass is a gorgeous green, it was only mowed a few days ago and it already needs it again!

It really is amazing how much fun little kids can have with a hose and a couple containers to fill.  It's a good thing we don't pay for our water though.

I've been thinking a lot lately about life, and how many lies we, as a society in general believe about it.   

I don't have time or brain function right now to express in detail how callously our world views children, how narcissistic we are, or how tragic I think that is...but here are a few rambling thoughts on the topic.

Just this week I watched America cheer and make a hero out of a woman who is championing barbaric late term abortions.  Justified by the god of "choice" and exploiting stories about children who would have been born disabled, or with with some other imperfection.  We applaud these eugenics killings like they are a courageous, merciful and harrowing decision a mother must make, when in reality it's profound selfishness and discrimination at it's worst.   But that's the thing, the world is blind...and only God can make the blind see.  

So here is my little blog, my little family, and my little story to stand as witness.

No doctor, no parent, no politician, and no media personality can predict the quality of another persons life, or arrogantly assume that they know what that even means.  

Here we are as a living, breathing counter cultural testimony that "quality of life" has nothing to do with wealth.   It has nothing to do with being able to give our children every material advantage.  It has nothing to do with family size.   It has nothing to do with savings accounts, retirement plans, and golf club memberships.  It has nothing to do with being born into a picture perfect family lineage. It has nothing to do with positive or negative blood tests.  It has nothing to do with years spent in school, or letters behind our names, or qualifications hung on a wall.....but it has everything to do with love, with sacrifice, with surrender, and with living the messy life God gave us for his glory. 

 Our "quality of life" has everything to do with seeing God's good design and sovereignty even in our weakness, disability, chronic illness and heartache.  We fix our eyes on beauty, but we refuse to close our eyes to the pain.  We embrace both, trusting the One who sees what we cannot see. 

Our society has an illusion of control, and when something happens that it cannot control it rallies, and rages, and rails against it.  It exterminates the "problem".

So often the children are seen as the problem...rather than our own quest for perfection and comfort.

I stand here not only as a testament to God's daily grace and His ability to multiply our little loaves and fishes, but to the reality that every life has purpose and value.  I use the word "potential" sparingly because it implies that our children's worth is yet to be seen or will come with future accomplishments. 

It doesn't matter if a baby is conceived under the worst possible circumstances, or born into a horrible situation, or diagnosed with a disability, or is unplanned for and  "unwanted", or is the offspring of a tragic lineage....NO child is a lost cause,

and no child is inherently disposable. 

I think my children would agree.

Whether a life lasts for only a few minutes, or for 100 years...there is purpose in that life.  Whether a child becomes a neurosurgeon, or is the child that the neurosurgeon cannot fix...

neither are born outside of Imago Dei.  None are conceived without the Creators touch, or outside of his Sovereign will. 

"Church, please, do not let the language of law or property guide how we think of the children God gives us. Children — all children in every circumstance from every part of the world of every color and ethnicity and physical or cognitive ability — are not chattel. Children are not chattel. They are rewards and blessings from our gracious heavenly Father, for his glory and for our eternal good."  John Kinght

I get to witness the beautiful reality of that every single day, 

because of that, the enemy's lie, and destructive purpose is so clear.  

My heart is torn open by it. 

The lie is so pervasive even many who consider  themselves part of the "Church" are deceived by the smooth words, and subtle poison.  Whole denominations have abandoned the cause of the weak, the voiceless, and the "least of these" among us and traded it for a politicly correct cause that seeks power, control, and sets "self" up as a god as it shouts "It's MY body!"

 Blind guides.

  

Wide is the road that leads to destruction, and that is certainly true when it comes to accepting the destruction of our worlds most vulnerable children. 

My body is not my own, it is laid down, used up, and poured out.  

"Though a poison should threaten to kill, I know my Savoir reigns

 when the breezes of death leave a chill, I've got Jesus' blood in my veins. 

So I feel like alive with a life that's not mine and I believe that's your intended design"