A Matter of Life and Death

Today, I experienced a lot of emotions. Mostly negative.

I was out the door this morning to set up for a funeral at my church. A little boy, 3 years old, was run over by a car a few days ago.

While we were setting up, I asked my sister's boyfriend what time it would be in the UK. It was 2:00pm, Charlie Gard's court hearing had probably just started. He and I prayed about it together, but it stayed on my heart the whole day. What happened? What was decided in that courtroom?

I left the church at 11:00, with the intent to go downtown and do "Choice" Chain, a pro-life activism campaign, but it rained. So we cancelled. Every time it gets cancelled I can't help but feel a little bit like a failure. I can only hope that no one had an abortion today because we weren't there to show them the truth.

I found out in time to make it back for the funeral, (we live minutes away from our church) and got to help with that. No matter how much I did or could have done, it wouldn't have been enough. To lose a son, a three year old... I can't imagine.

While contemplating all of the events of the day, I just felt God impress on me, "Life and death is in My hands."

Three different situations, all involving children dying, made up the backbone of my day, but in not one of those situations, did I have the power to do anything.

But God did. In every one of those situations, He was sovereign. I can trust Him.

The saying, "Leave it in God's hands," suddenly sounds different to me now. It sounds like, "Don't take it out of God's hands." Leave it. Because it was there to begin with.

God has always, and will always, be sovereign. Life and death will always be in His hands, and not one of us would be more capable to hold them than Him.


End Notes:

-Charlie Gard

If you don't know who Charlie Gard is or why he has a court hearing, he is an 11 month old boy who is critically ill, living on life support in the UK. Even though his parents have been fighting for his life, and raising amazing amounts of money for his treatment, the doctors have decided to take him off of life support, saying he should just "Die with dignity," even against the wishes of his parents. There has been a petition signed by people all over the world to provide treat,don't for him, Donald Trump and the Pope have spoken in favour of his life, so the hospital is facing opposition to their decision. If you want more information, there is always Google. :) I searched Char, and Charlie Gard was the first search option.

-Choice Chain

Would you like to join the pro life movement in Canada? It is NOT a hopeless cause! Having been on the front lines myself, I can tell you that I have been blown away by the amount of minds that have been changed, and lives that have been saved through our efforts.
If you are in Windsor, we have a local group called Windsor Against Abortion. Look us up on Facebook and send us a message, we hold training sessions semi-regularly for people who are interested.
If you are not in Windsor, there are lots of pro life groups rising up throughout Canada. Many of them have been taking a similar name, (Niagara Against Abortion, London Against Abortion, etc.) so try googling it to see if you can find one. If not, go ahead and email me at keturahthomson12@gmail.com, and I will see if I can connect you with someone in your area.

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

A few days ago I attended an amazing funeral.

I haven't been to many funerals, and all of the ones I have been to were Christian funerals, so I can't say much about the comparison, but I can tell you what I found outstanding about it.

I didn't know the man very well, I had only met him in person once I think, maybe twice, but I knew just from the brief moments that I talked with him that he was a very godly man.

When I had just become a Christian I decided that I didn't want to call myself a Christian. I didn't want to tell anyone, I wanted them to figure it out for themselves. I wanted the way I acted, the way I spoke, even just the general way I portrayed myself to be all about Jesus. I thought that if I was a Christian, then I had Jesus in me, right? People say that the eyes are the windows to your soul, so if Jesus is in me, they should be able to see Jesus in my eyes.

This man had Jesus in his eyes. :)

The thing that amazed me about his funeral was that he planned it, and it portrayed what he loved most.

Jesus Christ.

And it was evident.

Right on the front of the program, (picked by himself) was 1 Samuel 2:30, Those who honor Me I will honor.

The verse was proven correct. There were tons of people there, all of them there because in some way or other, he had affected their lives and they wanted to honor him. He was honored by the number of people that were there, by the things that were said about him, by the tears shed for him, and by being taken to a place reserved for the people that Jesus loves. More than we can imagine God has honored him. All because he honored God in his life, and that was what he wanted to show. He wanted to tell people that if you honor God, God will honor you.

I love how even though the event was about him, he still pointed everything back to Christ.

Even though I knew him but for a short time, and I don't know that he even knew my name, I count in as a blessing to have met him. He was a great man, and a great example.

I realized as I stood and sang one of the hymns that this is what I wanted my funeral to be like. I don't want it to be about me. I want people to see that I loved God, and I want people to see how great He is.

I want my funeral to be celebration, because God has at last taken me to a place that I don't deserve to go to, because He loved me.

I want to leave behind the kind of legacy that this man left behind, and inspire other people, like he inspired me, to live so much for Christ that even their death can bring Him glory.