“The Litmus Test”
I was a driven and highly motivated high school student, determined to do my best, always focusing on my ultimate goal: to stand before a classroom of my own someday. But to be totally honest, one subject never lit up my interest or sparked my imagination…and that subject was science. I loved Biology classes, even with the smelly dissecting and the gathering of the unbelievably difficult insect, wildflower, and leaf collections. However, when it came to the Earth Sciences, Chemistry, and Physical Sciences, I usually found myself limping across the semester finish line with all the dignity I could muster. Of all the experiments and tests performed in those classrooms of my youth, very few of them remain in my memory files. One such test that I do recall is referred to as the litmus test. A litmus test, dating back to the 1300’s, is a chemical test to determine the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Put simply for those of us with not much science savvy, a small drop of sample is placed on specially prepared colored paper, and resulting changes in color determine the solution’s pH.
Metaphorically, a political litmus test, a test in which a single factor, attitude, or event is decisive for the voter, can also exist, and it does for me. I love following politics, studying the candidates, weighing their strengths and weaknesses, listening to their debates, gathering all the information available, and prayerfully forming my opinion. I come into any election realizing that no candidate is perfect or flawless, for he/she is a sinner, just like me. But to earn my vote they must pass a litmus test: What value do they place on life…specifically, unborn life?
As I was organizing some of our family pictures recently, I unearthed the old, faded sonograms of my children. I remember the amazement and wonder I felt when handed those pictures some four decades ago. Those faded pictures were not nearly as detailed or as technically advanced as the sonograms of my grandchildren. Although they are fuzzy, hardly recognizable, I can distinguish the outline of my baby’s head, I can trace that image with my finger, I can revel in at the thought that God allowed me to grow that life within me. I still find myself overwhelmed how “fearfully and wonderfully made” each of my little ones were.
Human life is sacred to God. We are formed “in his own image,” created “a little lower of the angels,” with the distinct honor of being set “over the works of (God’s) hands.” What an awesome, yet humbling, thought that is! We have such high value to the Creator of the universe that the Son of God was sent on a mission to secure our eternal destiny, to leave the glory of heaven to share humanity with us, to be rejected by His own, to endure the humiliation of the cross, to suffer a dreadful death, all for that individual life that He created, that He loves. Man has accomplished some wondrous feats throughout the pages of history, but the creation of life is reserved for the Master. But in some twisted, profane logic, man, who is incapable of creating life, believes he can choose, under certain conditions, to eliminate that life.
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee…and I ordained thee,” speaks not only of the prophet Jeremiah, but of me. Not only can Isaiah state that “the LORD…formed me from the womb to be his servant,” but I can join in that refrain. Just as the regal King David “was shapen” by the hands of God, “cast upon (God) from the womb,” so was I. The apostle Paul was “separated…and called” from his “mother’s womb,” and that process “pleased God,” just as it pleased God to form me for His purpose. With humility I can echo those precious words that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and “in thy book all my members were written.” Through no accomplishments of my own, I have eternal value to my Savior. Oh, what wondrous love!
Regardless of any other policies or promises, I cannot claim to abide by God’s Word while pulling the lever for anyone who lessens the value of that life formed by my God, that allows that life to be terminated. The killing of God’s creation is an affront to the Creator, abhorrent to the One Who meticulously formed that small life in HIS image. It is my political litmus test, based firmly in His Word. I will vote for life.
Psalm 139:13-16 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
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