"We Are All Children of God"   

I recently attended my daughter’s end of the year school year achievement awards. It was all about honoring the successes of the students in various categories: attendance, academic honor roll, physical fitness, music, and reading accomplishments. For nearly an hour the successes of those students were highlighted. Name after name was read recognizing the hard work and effort these young people had achieved in the past school year.

Yet there was one student whose success was noted above the others. He was given two awards for special achievement. I don’t know the young man or his family, but He is without a doubt a special kid. As he was honored the other students exploded with applause, shouts and cheering. He was obviously a favorite.  

Everyone present that day was reminded in a very practical and powerful way of God’s truth which says all of our lives are valuable and precious. All of our lives should be celebrated and cheered because of who we are. God’s word says we as human beings are made in His image and that fact alone gives each of us great significance. No matter what our abilities or talents, no matter what our physical accomplishments may be, no matter what our intelligence level,  we have value because we are part of God’s special creation, made to reflect the God who made us. 

But in our world that is a message that fewer and fewer accept as true. The proof is in the fact that 90% of all such people as this young man (who was the star of the day and I’m guessing the star of many other days in that school) are not allowed to be born into this world. Why? Because they are “imperfect” - they have Down syndrome. 

Their imperfection has a test and a label that tells us before they are even born that they are not perfect. The rest of us are allowed to escape and wait until this life before our limitations are made known. We all have imperfections, some are more obvious than others, but none of them should be used to discard anyone from the chance of succeeding in this life. 

If any of us are valuable it is only because of the God who has created us and who values us enough to die for us. Isaiah 44: 24 says, “The LORD, your Redeemer and Creator, says: ‘I am the LORD, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. By myself I made the earth and everything in it.’” 

It was great to see this young man honored by his teachers and his peers. When we do such things we are only recognizing the true worth that God gives to each human life. All human life is valuable because we are God’s unique creation. All human life is to be valued and protected and encouraged to achieve what God has for each of us. Remember that you have never met anyone who God didn’t create and who Jesus didn’t die for.

Pastor Curtis Tschetter