Just the other day, my children were outside playing after school and they discovered that a baby squirrel had fallen out of the tree next to our driveway. It was lying dead on the ground, with one tiny hand positioned over its heart.
The children were taken aback by the sight.
They wondered how old the beautiful creature was, and how he had died. We looked up into the tree, searching for clues. The children planned on showing their friends the new found little squirrel, for whom they felt so much affection. While awaiting the arrival of their friends, they brushed a few ants off the body and made plans for a dignified burial.
They named the baby "Chestnut."
I was very moved by the children's great respect for this small creature, their sadness because of its death, and the importance they placed on loving and honoring the tiny animal after it had died.
Children teach us many important things.
We must learn from their example.
Later that night, the children went to play at a dear neighbor's house across the street while I went to the dentist. It was 8:30 p.m. Upon my return, the children said that they and their friends had gathered in the yard at dusk and held a burial for Chestnut. How sad I was to have missed it.
The next day after school, my twelve year old daughter Alyssa wanted to show me where the ceremony was held and the squirrel buried.As we stood over the baby's final resting place, Alyssa described their gathering the night before. The children buried the squirrel in a flower bed, near the stump of a small tree that had died and was cut down last fall. The children wrote the names of everyone who had attended the burial on the stump.
They also made a headstone for Chestnut, by writing R.I.P. Here lies Chestnut, 2 weeks, on a rock in permanent black marker.
All the details were very important to the children, and also vital to their grieving process.
At the angle from where I was standing, I hadn't realized that the plot was given the shape of a heart until she pointed it out. The children had also gathered flowers from the yard, and placed several bouquets on the grave.
Oh, how much we have to learn from children!
Our Lord said, "Truly I say to you, except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." ~Matthew 18:3
To think that killing children is legal. What a crime against them, ourselves, and the entire human family!
There are several critical factors that led not only to the children's holy reverence for life, but also their respect for the little life of Chestnut, whom they had never even met while he was living, even after he had died.
First, the children are loved, valued, and respected in imitation of Christ. Since they feel loved, valued, and respected, they are able to love, value, and respect others. They have received proper faith formation, are strongly encouraged to continue the process throughout their lives, participate in Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion as often as they are able to, and go to Reconciliation regularly. To know God is to reverence all life which He has created.
They have been taught the importance of self-mastery/ self-control, obedience, humility, serving others, and loving much as they grow in sanctity and strive to live in imitation of Christ.
They know the Ten Commandments, and the New Commandment, have an understanding of why God gave them to us, and understand that we are happiest when we follow them. They have been taught that God commanded us, "Thou shalt not kill," no matter what anyone else says, and that all life is created by God and begins at conception. They also have been taught that help that kills (abortion) isn't help at all.
One of the most important ways to express God's love to our children is to teach them, in developmentally appropriate ways and from infancy, about the sanctity of life.
We must also promote God's pro-life plan for humanity and teach everyone, in all that we say and do.
How beautiful it was to witness the love of God, expressed through the precious hearts of children, for the tiny, newborn creature. How pleasing to God was their compassion, caring, and respect for the creature's dignity.
The fact that abortion is legal in so many countries around the world is absolutely inconceivable, as is the reality that people are encouraged by some to end the lives of their children, that people profit from it, fuel their pride by it, spread the devil's lies through it, and that so many people loved and valued by God have been and continue to be regarded as worthless. Millions of babies' lives have been ended through abortion, and their physical remains were discarded in the trash. Most remain nameless and are never spoken of, as if they never even existed.
It is absolutely unthinkable. How evil.
"Behind every abortion is the devil." ~Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
Did you know that every single person ever created receives a personal summons by God to protect and peacefully defend every human life. It's true. You have been summoned, too. This is a calling that every one of us must respond to, immediately, and one we will be held accountable for.
We must heed this calling if we are to live in imitation of Christ.
One cannot be pro-abortion or pro-choice (same thing) and be living in imitation of Christ at the same time. One cannot live according to God's laws and be pro-abortion or pro-choice (same thing). It just isn't possible.
God, the Creator of Life, is pro-life. Are you?
The following life-changing and life-saving video is six minutes long. It is not graphic, it is truthful and thus painful. Be sure to watch it! If you have children or grandchildren watch it with them, too, and make it a point to do all you can to respect and defend life, from conception to natural death.
Dr. Anthony Levatino, former abortion doctor,
explains how abortions are performed:
Arm others with the truth about abortion, and also euthanasia. For if we do not teach people that abortion and euthanasia are wrong, others may convince them that murder is right.
It is important to conclude this story with one more point. In order for people to heal properly following the death of someone dear, or someone we knew only a short while, or someone we did not know at all, we must allow ourselves to grieve.
It is important to acknowledge the loss of life, if necessary find support, express sorrow, and mourn in order to properly heal (emotionally, physically, and spiritually) and continue on with life, as God wants us to, just like the children in the story did.
If you, or anyone you know, is in need of post-abortion healing,
help is available!
Please visit: Rachel's Vineyard
God is so in love with you.
"There is no stopping abortion without the Eucharist."
~Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
God is at work in you!
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Photos of Eucharistic Exposition and Adoration taken at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.