We celebrate.  We do.  We celebrate with sobriety.  Sobriety that so many lives have been lost.  Sobriety that so many have felt so afraid and desperate that they were led to do something so irrevocable.  Sobriety to know that whenever something like this is uprooted that these things will always provoke ugly response but we know it’s still worth it.  And there’s still much more to come.

It has also meant once again shocking revelations from people we know.  There are some issues in Scripture that are unclear.  This is not one of them.  And yet I wonder if even God’s people have read their Scriptures.

The truth is there is not a single sin in this world that we don’t commit with our body.  If someone were to beat up another person and cause them to go blind and their face and body to be maimed, we can’t see that I can do what I want with my arms.  They are mine.   Every single wrong and every crime and every sin is done with our bodies.  And when that harms others with a separate DNA, a separate entity entirely, then we are responsible.

It’s interesting just this past week I was reading through Scripture of the people that God gives them their calling while in the womb when he is knitting them together (Ps 139).  He gave Jeremiah his calling (Jer 1), Jacob (Gen 25), John the Baptist (Luke 1) and of course Jesus.   When that life is cut short, that calling cannot be fulfilled.  God’s holy calling on a person cannot be fulfilled.  It’s sobering.

So we celebrate.  With sobriety on so many levels.  But whatever conflict comes, it is worth it.  There are some clear cut issues to take a stand.  Worth whatever may come because of it.  It’s worth it.