By now, no doubt, we all have heard of the tragic shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We quickly learned that nearly a score of victims either lay dead or were injured in the wake of the shooting event. Our collective hearts ache for the families of those who perished. And our prayers ascend for the healing of those who survived their wounds.
Just as quickly, it seems, many have begun to search for answers as to ‘why’ and ‘how’ such an event could happen. Others have already answered those questions for themselves and have begun to assign blame.
Those who cling to the assumption that weapons are the problem reason that the shooter would have had no opportunity or inclination to kill IF he had had no access to a gun. Those who champion pro-life causes find fault with the brutal death industry of Planned Parenthood and assume that no incident could have occurred IF the abortion office did not exist.
And although each group feels that their rationale is correct and that they can site logical reasons supporting their convictions, both are wrong. On the surface, both appear to be right. But, let’s ask ourselves these questions: 1) Are we to assume that the absence of a gun would have prevented the act of violence of a man against another adult man or woman? And 2) Are we to further assume that the absence of an abortion clinic would have prevented the act of violence of a man or woman against a helpless baby?
No. We know the answer. The perpetrator of the shooting, in the absence of a gun, would have found another vicious way to harm the people he hated. And the propagators and purchasers of abortion, in the absence of a clinic, would have found another vicious way to kill their babies. Of this we can be certain.
But if these answers do not accurately explain ‘why’ this happened, then what does? What is the real reason this event happened?
Simply this–The shooter and the clinic workers WERE TRYING TO PLAY GOD! Yes, that’s the reason. The shooter felt justified in playing God by deciding who lived and who died AND the clinic workers felt justified in playing God by deciding what babies lived and what babies died. And regardless of the supposed well-intentioned point of view of each, their glaring arrogance prove all that needs to be understood about this event.
IT NEVER WOULD HAVE OCCURRED IF PEOPLE WOULD HAVE LEFT TO GOD THE THINGS OF GOD and WOULD HAVE DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO HIS HONOR AND SOVEREIGNTY INSTEAD.
The shooter AND the clinic workers should have shuddered in fear of trying to assume God’s role as the Giver of life. As it is, they all grossly overestimated their own importance in life and while acting on their own impulses and self-will left on the landscape of our culture another grotesque picture of what we all are like whenever we push God away and attempt to take His place and become the ‘gods of our own fabrication’. And what a wretched sight it is. The gunman’s weapon was wielded over helpless people caught in his sights and helpless babies were pulled from their mother’s womb by doctors wielding a scalpel–both hideous sights are they of the results of ruthless, Godless violence.
But thanks be to God, He can and will have mercy on all who call on Him out of a pure heart for salvation. Let’s purpose to bow before Him, invite Him to be our God through faith in Jesus Christ and follow Him in all His ways, thereby, leaving a better, more worthy picture for others to see when they look at how we lived our lives here–lives lived with love for God and love for those created in His image, both born and pre-born.