This past Sunday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Last week, we remembered and grieved the deaths, the murders, of 58 million unborn children who have lost their lives to abortion in the United States since 1973. We remember most clearly that we live in a culture of death, a culture where abortion is not just grudgingly accepted, but is embraced, a culture where five states have legalized euthanasia. There may come a time when our great, great grandchildren look back on us with the same disgust we have for our ancestors who tolerated slavery and refused to stand with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; they may look at us with disgust because we didn’t do enough to preserve the sanctity of life.

However, despite the difficulty in imagining the gravity of this tragedy, we can still be hopeful. I am hopeful because of the sovereignty of God in all things. When I look at the work the Lord has done in the past few years, the lives that have been changed because of God’s hand of grace in the pro-life movement, I can look to the future with both hope and faith. From the advancement in ultrasound technology to individual stories of redemption I believe God is slowly healing the American conscience of the scarring it’s endured under its toleration of abortion. I and many others have witnessed the lives that have come from spiritual death to spiritual life through tragedy. Women and men alike have been united with Christ because the tragedy of abortion broadsided them when they least expected it. Many have felt God’s grace and their eyes have been opened to the light at the end of the tunnel, a light of unity and freedom in Christ. How great are the will and the grace of our God if he can take something to terrible and bring about something beautiful from the ashes. The hidden will of God is something we may not see for a long time; in fact, we might never see its fruit. But the revealed will of God, the Bible, tells us to have faith and joy when trials come our way because of the Holiness and the Sovereignty of God.

Job was a man who had much and lost everything. His children died, his property was taken, his friends scorned him, and even his wife told him to curse God and die. But Job persevered, believing in the perfect will and sovereignty of God. When he heard that his beloved children were dead, Job 1:20–21 says, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Even at the end of the book of Job, when he questions God and God rebukes him, Job repents and declares “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

May we live daily for the glory of God, praying for the end to the mass-killing of the unborn and the changing of hearts and minds in a culture that embraces death.