This week, a man went on trial for murder. Eight of them. Seven infants. One woman.
This week, there was an uproar that more was not made of the moment. And there was an uproar that much has already been made to a world gone deaf.
But this isn’t about the uproar.
This is about the prayer.
“God be just. God have mercy.”
For the pregnant girls and women who made the choice to walk in the clinic. For the staff who carried out the procedures.
“God be just. God have mercy.”
For the jury administering justice. For those haunted by the choices – and for those untouched by it all.
“God be just. God have mercy.”
A prayer that seems to war with itself – justice and mercy in a divine clash that somehow doesn’t cancel itself out but rather yields forgiveness that reaches to the end of ourselves and pulls us back to center.
God’s mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has forgiven you. ~Rick Warren
And this is about the whisper.
“Fearfully and wonderfully made…”
Every single one.The precious infants. Their moms. Those working in the clinic. Those cradling their abdomens and those cradling syringes and scissors, as they all secretly question and wonder and wish someone else would just speak up.
“Fearfully and wonderfully made…”
And Dr. Gosnell. Yes, even the man now facing the death penalty – fearfully and wonderfully crafted together by an almighty God.
“Fearfully and wonderfully made…”
A claim easily made for the innocent. But for the guilty? Again, the war of words. Surely the whisper is reserved for the kind and compassionate. Surely it has no place with the murderer, or the abuser, or the liar, or the cheat – or the gossip, or the glutton, or the judgmental, or the proud. Surely it has no place with those who aren’t good. Perhaps it has a place with you. But I know my heart, my head, my hands. And I would have to take my place next to Gosnell. Yet – there is the whisper. It holds the promise of redemption. For every single one.
God just doesn’t throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive. ~R.C. Sproul
Justice and mercy for those who are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Yes. Amen. Please.