Reflection by Tim Waggoner
KINGSTON, Ontario, December 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – To be asked to write a positive reflection for a pro-life and family news service, considering what is going on in the world at this time, at first seems an impossible task.
What is positive about the world’s most influential nation voting into power the most pro-abortion President in its history? What is positive about its northern neighbor’s government vowing not to change the fact that its country is bereft of any laws protecting the unborn? How do you write a positive reflection, when a reflection of our culture brings to mind a skull and cross bones?
How? You focus on a fact that is often forgotten. The fact that should give us perpetual hope and joy. We are fighting in a battle that has already been won.
Christmas, and all it entails, is more then anything else a celebration of God’s love for his people – His love made manifest. 2000 years ago the cry of a newborn baby wearing swaddling clothes rang out and shook the foundations of hell, foreshadowing its utter destruction. The light in the darkness arrived to make his people anew. Christmas marks the beginning of the end of the power of sin.
What is more remarkable is the humble beginnings of one who would end up changing the history of mankind forever. Born of simple parents, in a stable, with no apparent worldly wealth, Christ aligned himself immediately with the poor and marginalized of the world. The world at the time was marked by paganism and ruled by dictatorial forces. Yet in that small corner of the world began a grassroots movement that would lead to victory over death and suffering. No longer would suffering be empty of meaning. No longer would the poor be voiceless.
What an uplifting message for weary soldiers, prayerfully fighting so others may live. This is a message of hope that confronts the temptation to despair. In the pro-life movement, we stand in solidarity with Christ and his victory. We stand in solidarity with every unborn child and see the promise and the miracle of the incarnation reflected in each womb. We soldier on in our small, humble, grassroots niches, confident that the victory has already been won by Christ.
But if the battle has already been won, why does the cultural big picture look so grim? In order to claim Christ’s victory as our own, we must ask for it. The fundamental aspect of our movement is to strive for a movement of hearts to say yes to Christ. And at the grass roots level, there exist many who have allowed Christ’s victory over sin to enter their hearts. The fruits of his victory are people like you, who tirelessly seek the full and free expression of the will of God on earth; that every human being be treated with dignity and love from the moment of conception to natural death.
We could not accomplish this without each other and I thank God every day for the faithful readers of LifeSiteNews who support it with their prayers. Together we form a community of faith who look with hope and confidence to the future kingdom on earth promised by Christ.
I have only worked with LifeSiteNews since May, but I am absolutely convinced this alternative news source is essential in bringing the Gospel of life into the hearts of the lost. Let us pray this Christmas that God will break down the hardened hearts that refuse to accept Christ’s victory so that the Good News will enter their hearts and conceive in them a new birth of love for all human life.
On the Eve of the birth of our Saviour I pray that the Christ Child blesses each and every one of you and that you are filled with faith-filled hope.