Precious

“And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Luke 1:43

Elizabeth, filled with the Spirit of God, marveled. Her cousin Mary had come from far away to visit her all the way into the hill country of Judah. Who was she, that the mother of our Lord would deign to find out how she was and spend some time with her? Was she that special, that significant?

Like Elizabeth, we should marvel at the truth that we are the apple of God’s eye. “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings.” (Psalm 17:8) We usually take for granted that God’s eye is upon us always. Without His attention, without His breath of life within us, we are just dust and ashes. Each one of us is special and significant. Each one of us has the imprint of God as we are created in His image and likeness. 

I heard that here in the Philippines we can have a person killed for just P5,000.00 ($96.00). It is so sad that the very people tasked to protect us, the police, are given permission to kill drug addicts and criminals by the President himself. No value is given to the lives of these all but forgotten people. But the truth is each one of them is as precious as we are to God and should be as precious to us as well. 

St. Lawrence as the archdeacon in the reign of Emperor Valerian, was ordered to turn over the treasures of the Church in three days. He quickly sold the Church’ property and distributed it to the poor, the widows and the sick. After three days, Lawrence led a crowd of poor, blind, crippled, suffering people to the door of the palace. “These are the true treasures of the Church,” he boldly proclaimed. In fury, the Emperor ordered that he be grilled on the rack that same day. 

Let us pray that we will not catch the world’s attitude of cavalierly treating the powerless and the voiceless. Sometimes animals have more rights than babies in the womb, homeless and disabled people. We should always see people through God’s eyes.