Friday, January 04, 2008

What Does Life Have To Do With It ???

Looking back on 2007, brings to mind the extraordinary number of deaths of family members and friends, unlike any single year that I can remember previously. This has caused me to think more deeply of life and death and the purpose for each of our lives, which must eventually end.

I believe that God is the author of all life that is conceived, and He alone determines who is actually born and who is not. So He allows some lives to be born, and others to be aborted or miscarried as He sees fit. The issues of being 'pro-life' or 'pro-choice' are really moot points, when you consider that God holds the final trump cards concerning all lives and deaths. I believe that man cannot do anything that God does not actively or passively permit, and this includes the ending of lives. Being all knowing, all powerful, and perfectly just, is what defines and distinguishes God from man.

What is really important though, is the purpose that God has for each life that He permits to be born. Whether born with disabilities, deformities or no handicaps at all, each birth has a reason and a purpose, known only to God and sometimes made clear to man, as his life progresses. This explains how lives that would normally be written off like Ludwig Van Beethoven, Stephen Hawking, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and many others, could be so purposeful and fruitful, in spite of the seriousness of what we would call their handicaps.

So as I look forward to 2008 and away from the sad events of 2007, I can rest assured that God had a purpose for each of those loved ones that passed from the scene. During their lifetimes, they surely fulfilled their purpose as directed and controlled by God, and when that purpose was completed, they left this life, some willingly, and some, probably unwillingly.

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