For everything there is a season,” the Teacher tells us in Ecclesiastes. “A time to be born, and a time to die” (Ecc. 3:1–2, ESV).
I remember the morning I found out I was pregnant with my eldest son. Shortly after breaking the exciting (and surprising!) news to my husband, I took our dog for a walk. In that moment of quiet, one of my first thoughts was Lord willing, this child will outlive me. The reality of death became personal.
In the stories we tell and the legacies we bequeath, birth and death are always intertwined. And in this issue of Christianity Today, we examine both the beginnings and the endings of lives lived toward God.
Karen Swallow Prior describes how childlessness can be a blessing: “Sometimes, while we are looking for one gift, it can be harder to see another one resting, still wrapped, in the other direction.” In conversation with Prior is Kara Bettis Carvalho’s report on fertility and reproductive technologies. And as the internet laments the struggles of parenting, Kate Lucky reminds us of the joy of motherhood.
These are not merely women’s concerns or personal ones. As we consider demographic cliffs, declining birthrates, and the importance of passing the faith to subsequent generations, these stories speak to all of us as we promote the common good and make disciples.
Likewise, we must think Christianly about death—not as a merely natural phenomenon but as a spiritual reality, an entrance into eternal life. Just as we fight for the lives of the unborn, we must also fight for the lives of those close to death, opposing all forms of euthanasia even when they’re branded as “compassionate” or “dignified.” To that end, Kristy Etheridge reports on Catholic and evangelical responses to physician-assisted suicide in Canada and New York.
In between birth and death, the church works toward human flourishing and restoration. You’ll see evidence of this in Emily Belz’s feature about Christian boarding houses and Andy Olsen’s reporting on churches advocating for those wrongly detained. In our new Dispatches section, several CT staffers highlight Christians laboring to redeem business opportunities and rejuvenate a beleaguered city.
In our reporting, reviews, and personal essays, we always take the side of life, including in this Lenten and Easter season. (We’re honored to feature an interview with theologian Fleming Rutledge about the Crucifixion and Resurrection.) We serve a Savior who passed through death, bearing the weight of sin and purchasing our redemption. Victorious, Jesus ushered in real life, and in so doing declared—as poet John Donne wrote—“Death, thou shalt die.”
Ashley Hales is editorial director for features at Christianity Today.
The post Birth and Death are Life Issues appeared first on Christianity Today.
