Lewis Carroll's popular work, Through the Looking Glass, has these
famous lines: "The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk
of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax - - of cabbages and kings."
This article is about "many things": of shoes and septuplets of
conflicts and kings.
...OF SHOES
One of my early movie memories is a scene in which
dancer Fred Astaire tapped to a tune whose words went something like this:
"Give me that old soft shoe; I said that old soft shoe; a-one, a-two,
a dippity, dippity do." Not great poetry but, oh, what music Astaire
could make as his shoes tapped out the rhythm.
That tune came to mind this Christmas season when I read about an Indiana
man who is asking people for old shoes, saying in effect, "give me
your old soft shoes, I want your old soft shoes" - - 1.5 million pairs
of them! His goal is to collect baby and childrens' shoes equal to the number
of abortions performed yearly in the U.S., which he then plans to take to
the Indiana statehouse and the U.S. Capitol.
Can you imagine what a mountain 1.5 million pairs of little shoes will make?
I can't, but neither can I imagine how our nation has tolerated the annual
abortion destruction of 1.5 million babies who will never even get to wear
shoes. Think of the Fred Astaires who will never entertain us; or the Mother
Teresas who will never walk among us; or the Henry Hydes who will never
speak for us.
...OF SEPTUPLETS
On the other hand, think of all the shoes the McCaughey
family will use during the lifetimes of their septuplets. Imagine all the
shoelaces to be tied, scuffs to be polished, and sneakers to be washed.
That could have been avoided, argue some experts, if only they had availed
themselves of "selective reduction."
I first heard that term almost 18 years ago when a neighbor suggested that
my daughter, carrying triplets, should eliminate one or two of them. Back
then, the idea was new. Today, the procedure is common for multiple pregnancies.
At a recent family dinner "selective [or "fetal"] reduction"
became the topic of conversation. Our family keeps growing so that this
year there were not only more shoes under the table, but bigger ones as
well. The "canal boats" belonged to my grandsons, 17-year-old
triplets, who have very strong opinions about the "selective reduction"
of multiple fetuses.
Which one (or two) could our family have done without? Which child's life
would we have chosen to terminate? Which set of shoes would I not want under
our Christmas table?
...OF CONFLICTS
Multiple pregnancies produce not only children
but heated debate, and once again our nation finds itself divided. Actually
the divisions are endless, and the human mechanisms designed to address
conflict are not working.
Christians believe there really is only one place to find real peace...the
place where smelly, earthy shepherds knelt beside educated, bejeweled astrologers.
Shepherds with Magi. Rich and poor. East and West. Young and old. The universality
of different people, all recognizing that the true peace table is in the
shape of a manger.
...OF KINGS
Throughout the world the ancient episode of 2,000
years ago called "the slaughter of the innocents" is remembered
each year at this time. It seems a minor thing to recall since
only about 25 babies were killed.
It seems a small thing to mark, given the major events in history.
But it is a good thing to highlight, for it reflects the reverence
for life that God's people have long held for all human life.
King Herod has emerged as "the monster" of the Christmas story
for killing 25 babies. But what will history call our nation for having
slaughtered 36 million innocents?
"THE TIME HAS COME," THE WALRUS SAID, "TO TALK OF MANY THINGS...."
Christmas-time, the Baby-in-the-Manger time, is the perfect occasion to
talk about the sanctity of human life. After all, if "fetal reduction"
of one to zero existed two centuries ago as it does now in 4,000 legal abortions
a day, what would we have to celebrate?