CLAY CENTER — “Will you pray for us?  My wife and I wish to have children.”  Several years ago I went on a mission trip to India and heard this request many times as I ministered among the people.  They wanted to exhaust all means in trying to have a family.  It made a deep impact on me.  The Scriptures say, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”  (Psalm 127:3)    
This experience hammered home the value of life.  We see it everywhere in our world.  Young couples facing the inability to have children, trying to save the life of an unborn child when there are complications or when a little boy or girl has a tragic accident or a serious health problem.  There are no mountains high enough, no seas deep enough and no dangers terrifying enough to make us give up.          
The value of life.  We also see it in our grief when a life is lost.  A soldier having life-long nightmares of lives he has taken in defense of our country.  A parent’s heartache because of their child who was taken in a tragedy like the Sandy Hook shooting.  The secret and silent tears of an abortion.  
We were made to save life and value it.  God our Creator made human beings and called them “good”.  He then commissioned us to have families and fill the earth.  Life is part of His plan.  When we follow it there is joy and peace.    
When life is unfairly taken or destroyed it only brings pain and suffering.  This is part of the terrible curse of sin in our world.  It falls on the just and unjust alike.  There is a sense of mystery to it that no words of eloquence could ever satisfy.     
Let us do three things today.  First, we must give ourselves permission and time to grieve loss.  Because we value life, naturally we grieve when life is taken away.  Second, let us never go against God’s plan.  Nothing good will come upon a person or nation that does not uphold the value of life.  Third, let us agree that everyone is valuable, from the disabled child to the beautiful movie star.  So precious is life, that God sent His only Son, Jesus.  He came to save us from the greatest evil that still is yet to come upon our world.  May we receive Jesus and make Him our hope for today.

Clint Decker is President & Evangelist with Great Awakenings Inc. and writes the column “Hope for Today.” Contact him at cdecker@greatawakenings.org or 785-632-5063