Rachel's Little Ones

Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.”

Jeremiah 31:13

My heart is sorrowing today.  I am filled with grief over senseless deaths.

If you have followed the Kermit Gosnell trial at all, you have heard some things too horrendous for words.  Thousands of abortions performed in unsanitary conditions.  Women's lives endangered.  Living, breathing babies killed after delivery.  Grisly details given by employees at his "clinic." 

If you live in my area, or just about any area of the United States, you will have heard the stories of young people who have taken their own lives.  Thinking that life is useless and there is no hope, they choose what they consider the only way "out."  I have friends who have lost children, grandchildren, and friends.  My oldest son is at a funeral home tonight.  A former classmate took his own life over the weekend.

What has happened to our world, when those who used to have the most hope and joy--our little ones and young ones--have the most to fear?  I remember "teen angst" from my high school years:  the broken hearts, hormones raging, and trying to grow up in a world in the midst of a Cold War.  But I can honestly say that, if suicide even crossed my mind ever-so-briefly, it was never a serious consideration.  I always had the optimism that there would be a better day.  The tough stuff would eventually pass, and I would be joyful again.

How do we restore that same hope to young women facing unexpected pregnancies?  How do we help our young people see that what they face is momentary?  How do we convince them all that to choose life is the first step toward the "light at the end of the tunnel" they are walking through?

Share the hope you have.  Speak "life" to them.  Let them know there is a Sunday morning after the "Friday nights" of their life.  There is a Resurrection.  Jesus truly lives and loves and gives Himself over and over for them to know true life.  Let them know the empty tomb is a reason for anticipation of something much better...even in this lifetime.

May God help us...and spare His little ones.