OneNewsNow: ‘Unwanted’ children and the glory of God

(OneNewsNow.com– 9/12/11) –News outlets recently covered the shocking story of a woman who was arrested after throwing her disabled infant son from atop a parking garage.

Late last month, Sonia Hermosillo was arrested by California authorities for throwing her seven-week-old son from the fourth story of a parking garage located at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. The infant boy, named Noe Medina Jr., had been receiving treatment at the hospital for various birth defects.

Prosecutors allege that Hermosillo removed the helmet her son wore due to one of those birth defects just before throwing him from the parking garage. Hermosillo then returned to the hospital to validate her parking before driving away.

Witnesses saw the baby falling and emergency personnel rushed him to the hospital, but sadly, the baby boy later died of his injuries. As a result, Hermosillo has been charged with murder and felony child abuse.

The societal response to Noe’s death reveals something dark about American culture.

Predictably, most people who have heard of little Noe’s murder have expressed their outrage and sadness. But those among them who support abortion are being inconsistent. A mere eight weeks earlier, seven-week-old Noe could have been killed by his mother and none of us would have ever known his name.

Little Noe’s senseless and unjust death serves to expose society’s double-standard on the value of human life before and after birth. His murder is a tragedy illustrating the moral descent witnessed in a pro-abortion culture such as America. This sad situation demonstrates that once children are seen as expendable before birth, little remains to stop them from being seen as expendable after birth.

But this heartbreaking situation also serves to remind us of the plight of the thousands of special needs children in this country, many of them orphans. God was not surprised by Noe’s birth. He gave Noe those parents for a reason, and His perfect intention is for children to stay with their biological parents. No one would deny that raising a handicapped child is in many ways more difficult than raising a child born free of such challenges, but Scripture makes no exceptions when it teaches that children are a blessing from God (Ps. 127:3).

Still, perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided if one of the many childless Christian couples in this country had been given the chance to adopt Noe. But even if no one wanted to adopt such a precious child as Noe, there would still be absolutely no justification for killing him. God has prohibited murder and He hates the shedding of innocent blood (Ex. 20:13; Prov. 6:16-17).

According to the Bible, any child’s worth and value is not dependent on whether his body is wracked by birth defects. Every child is precious because of the worth God has placed on them as partakers in His own image (Gen. 1:27).

Yet, sadly, children born with physical defects make some people uncomfortable. Even more heartbreaking is the reality that this discomfort often turns to disgust and drives people like Noe’s mother to abort/murder their innocent children on account of physical problems.

However, the idea that some people are lesser because they have physical deformities is a lie refuted by Jesus Christ Himself. In John 9, we learn of a blind man who Jesus healed, but not before correcting His disciples’ mistaken idea that the man was blind because he or his parents had sinned:

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:1-3, NKJV)

Through these words, Jesus informed his followers that not all physical ailments are punishments from God. Rather, he taught them that physical disabilities are often used by God as amplifiers for His glory (John 9:3).

We cannot begin to understand the high and lofty purposes of God in such situations. God alone knows how to bring Himself the most glory, so we must rest in His sovereignty, knowing that no matter the amount of our physical imperfections, we are nevertheless “skillfully wrought” by His hand (Ps. 139:15).

Perhaps we should begin to realize that physical imperfections exist to remind us of exactly that: We are imperfect. We are fallen beings, and although each human possesses the indelible image of God, our souls and bodies attest to the fact that we are fallen creatures (Eph. 2:1). While some people’s physical bodies display this truth more visibly than others, apart from Jesus Christ the souls of all humans are equally depraved and deformed by sin (John 6:44).

The problem is a misunderstanding of sin’s true effects on both the body and soul. People disgusted with physical defects in others totally fail to see just how deformed they themselves are in the sight of a holy God. The Bible teaches that all humans, without exception, are utterly marred by sin and altogether unlovable (Rom. 3:23). Though we deserve only Hell, God the Father crushed His Son Jesus, laying on Him the just penalty for our sin (Rom. 6:23; Is. 53:10; 1 John 2:2).

The blind man in John 9 sat helplessly by the road, unable to seek out Jesus or even see Him. We have the same problem. Through this story, we are confronted with our own inability to come to God, as well as our total blindness to that problem. Thankfully, Christ sought us. He covered our spiritual deformities with His own perfect righteousness, saving us from the righteous wrath of God against sin. When we were utterly powerless to save ourselves, the glory of God’s grace in Christ was all the more splendidly displayed in us.

That’s why we should want the children like little Noe Medina, those society deems as the “least of these” — precisely because they remind us of Jesus’ teaching that God’s glory is often more beautifully displayed when we are at our weakest.