Lord God, thank you for creating human life in your image. Thank you for my life and the lives of those I love. Thank you for teaching us through scripture the value you place on life. Help me to uphold the sanctity of life in my church and community. Give me the strength to stand up to those forces that seek to destroy the lives of those most vulnerable, the unborn, the infirm, and the elderly. Today I commit myself never to be...
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(by Patricia Treece) Sixteen-month-old Elizabeth Fanning lies listlessly in her mother’s arms. Anxiously, drawn-faced Mrs. Fanning coaxes her child to take even a spoonful of the liver soup recommended by doctors. But although Elizabeth’s swollen belly and twiglike limbs make her look like a starvation victim, the lethargic baby has no interest in food of any kind. Little Betsy, as her parents call her, has a fatal...
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Light and Dark Perhaps healing is the opposite of brokenness—or breaking, really. Breaking apart—putting the pieces back together is healing, isn’t it? Gluing the pieces back into its whole state. Or the perceived whole state, anyway. I think we get lost in our understanding of healing when we force our idea of the outcome onto the process. Take a serious illness, for example. We only see healing as a complete restoration of...
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(by Wendy Patrice Williams) Coming Home To My Body Prologue Giraffes surrounded me on the wall, those long necks. Covered by plastic, they were cold when I touched them. The smell of alcohol reminded me of the nurse who would dab my arm with a wet cotton ball and prick me with a needle. Dr. Constad’s voice was warm gravel. “Look at you,” he said, squatting so his eyes were at equal height with mine. “You are a miracle.”...
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Look to the Soul What is brokenness except the absence of wholeness? But when you break a whole apart, each piece is, in itself, another whole. Science teaches us that—that no matter how many times you break something apart, you find another whole. So what exactly does that mean in terms of humanity? Because when you take a child out of its family, he might not remain whole in terms of integrity. But then being part of a whole family...
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