At what point does life begin?
“Then Adonai, God, formed a person from the dust of the ground…” Genesis 2:7 CJB.
That body formed from dust was a cell, if you will.
“…God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…” Genesis 2:7 CJB.
The breath was the second cell.
“…so that he became a living being…” Genesis 2:7 CJB.
When Jehovah God brought into union the body and the breath of life there was conceived a living being.
One could say, “Well this was a fully grown man.” That may be true but regardless, life began at the instant union took place.
So another question we might ask is:
At what point, or is there a point before which a living being has little or no value but after which he or she does, so that in one case we can extinguish the life but in the other we must preserve the life, with moral correctness, in God’s eyes, and a clear conscious?
In a sense life has existed since before the foundations of the earth. For God knew us even then. We were conceived and alive in His mind, He who
“…gives life to the dead and calls nonexistent things into existence…” Romans 4:17 CJB.
His conception of us before existence was never aborted even with the foreknowledge of our fall from perfection to corruption and decay. The value He placed on us remained from then and continues on, according to His plan to bring us to Himself in perfection again.
“So God created humankind in His own image; In the image of God He created him: Male and female He created him” Genesis 1:27 CJB.
Do we want to tamper with the “seed” within which this image lies, do away with it and the opportunity for it to grow into His image by means of the Way He has provided, to prevent it the opportunity to become the fruit of light and life to a world He wants to bring to Himself?
Life began in the mind of God. Its value is not on a sliding scale but is valuable always. He keeps an accounting of it and accountable we will be for the taking of it if we do so outside the guidelines He has provided or with an impure heart.
So where does that leave us here in the everyday real world? There are circumstances. There are scenarios.
Well yes there are but that wasn’t Abba’s doing. It was ours, willingly in some cases and ours, imposed on us unwillingly in other cases.
The tragedy of some, the burden of finance, of emotional stress, the complete altering of plans and priorities that result from an unplanned or initially unwanted child, are real. They don’t go away. But that is not the fault of the little one. The little one is now, and so must be cared for. And the creators of this little one have the duty and responsibility to care for it.
We, apart from the hard circumstances of a child conceived out of wedlock, out of wrongful unions whether mutually consenting or forced, in conditions of bad health or poverty are not free from involvement, nor in a way are we free from guilt.
It means that apart from a question of one life or the other, any other reason for ending a life be it mother or child, is something to be approached with fear and trepidation.
It is not the job of just government to take care of those in these circumstances. They can provide some resources to help but we also are to make contact in obedience to God’s command that we love one another. That means at a community and grass roots level, one on one, we respond to the physical and financial and emotional needs of women with child, of single parents, male or female so that preserving life can be achieved. We are to come close, have contact, know them.
That means and truthfully so, the burden of new life to those in hard circumstance is on us all. It always has been and always will be. In all cases we should companion with them, help them help themselves, everyone working together doing what they should and what they can.
We were created to be family. We need to be family.
May we be in wonderment of life Father, from its conception to its passing on to You. May we value it above all things, the nurturing of it, the growing of it, the protecting of it. May we be an influence, as we seek after You, in bringing that life into contact with You and in helping it to grow also to be like You. May we be involved to the extent You prompt and enable, to be companionship, and encouragement, and help, that there should be no sense of aloneness. Wherever we are and whatever we do may our understanding of success be that we have lived with the motive to love one another and glorify You.
In Yeshua’s name we pray,
Amen.