By Judie Brown
This week we prepare for the festivities of another family celebration dedicated to giving thanks and praise. Not only is the feeling of love stronger during these special days, it permeates everything we say and do.
As for me, I am thankful for my faith, my guardian angel, and my family. I believe that the blessings of this season begin with the awareness that everything in my life—and everyone else’s—is gifted to us by a loving Father Who asks only for our love, obedience, and trust in return.
Looking beyond our family of children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends, we see so many other reasons to be grateful to God. We are thankful for miracle babies who defy the odds and are born into the world—each a gift from the Lord Who constantly amazes us with His love. There have been so many of them this year alone, including little Emily who was born four months early and little Abigail Beutler. The doctors predicted that Abigail would die before birth because she had no kidneys, but her brave parents never gave a thought to abortion. Because of experimental treatment and a kidney transplant, today she is a vibrant three-year-old. Her mother is a pro-life member of Congress who often shares their story of hope and love.
Stories of babies like these confirm that each human being—including those deemed to be high risk or “incompatible with life”—is a miracle of God’s love. Each individual is precious and deserves the right to live and to be welcomed as part of our human family. Every human being—without exception—exists because of God’s love. As Saint John Paul II taught in the Gospel of Life: “The life which God gives man is quite different from the life of all other living creatures, inasmuch as man, although formed from the dust of the earth . . . is a manifestation of God in the world, a sign of His presence, a trace of His glory.”
We remain ever thankful for the miracle of life.
Romans 12:2 teaches: “Do not model your behavior on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and mature.”
God has placed us in this moment of human history to be the voices of those who cannot defend themselves. That includes the preborn, the elderly, the terminally ill, and all those threatened by euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
— Judie Brown (@Judie_Brown) November 21, 2017
We are thankful for the ability stand strong with Christ and in solidarity with every member of the human family—both born and preborn. The world waxes cold to the idea of unselfish love for another person, but it is in times likes these that we feel inspired to be fearless in our commitment and steadfast in the truth. God has placed us in this moment of human history to be the voices of those who cannot defend themselves. That includes the preborn, the elderly, the terminally ill, and all those threatened by euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The fear of dying is real. For so many such thoughts make them vulnerable to the siren songs of the purveyors of death. But in Christ we find love and hope, for as St. John Paul II reminds us: “Suffering cannot be transformed and changed by a grace from outside, but from within. And Christ through his own salvific suffering is very much present in every human suffering, and can act from within that suffering by the powers of his Spirit of truth, his consoling Spirit.”
We are thankful for the great consolations Christ gives His children, especially in times of trial. And we are thankful that God has given us the ability to serve Him in this hour in human history.
This Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for all the blessings before us, let us begin our prayers of thanks with the acknowledgment that, in God and through Christ, we find and are grateful for true freedom—a freedom that allows us to see each person in our midst as an image of the face of God.
All praise and all thanksgiving to you, Oh God!
We wish you and your family a very blessed Thanksgiving.
____________________________________________________
Pray for America.
Teach your children that human dignity and respect for life begins at the beginning and never ends regardless of age, health, or condition of dependency.
Expose the lies and learn why organizations like Planned Parenthood should never receive our tax dollars to peddle their ideology.
Get involved in your community by serving a local pregnancy care center or protesting at the local abortion mill. Spread the good news that people of every age from creation to death deserve our love and protection.