It's a Wonderful GIFT - Life!

Kurt Kondrich
December 2, 2013
Reproduced with Permission
NRL

In the classic 1946 Christmas story "It's a Wonderful Life," the angel Clarence intercedes to help George Bailey, a hopelessly discouraged man, stop from jumping off a bridge by showing George what life would have been like if he'd never existed. Clarence's revelation confirms the amazing, positive impact George has had on countless lives and the very bright light brought into this world.

Thanks to Clarence, George realizes that, like all of us, he was unique and irreplaceable. At the end of the story we are left to wonder what the world would look like if there were more people like George Bailey.

My daughter Chloe who has Down syndrome turned 10 this year. I can say without question she has lived and lives a wonderful life.

Like George Bailey, Chloe has had a remarkable impact on her family, community, and the lives of many. Had Chloe not been born, the world would be a much poorer place. But Chloe is one of the fortunate few.

Unlike the compassionate angel Clarence who reveals the beauty of life, the depressing angel of death convinces 90%+ of people who receive a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis to terminate the wonderful life that would have brought unconditional love, purity and joy to a world that has embraced darkness and death.

I have watched Chloe transform the beliefs and views of countless people by focusing them on ABILITIES and not disability. There are kids alive today because of the Light Chloe shone upon families who'd been given negative, depressing prenatal news about their unborn child with Down syndrome.

We desperately need a heavenly army of angels like Clarence to deliver uplifting news to a culture that labels certain human beings as "defective" and not fit for a wonderful life - indeed, supposedly incapable of a wonderful life! But the question is what would our society look like if the 90%+ children with Down syndrome who have been prenatally eliminated had been embraced? What if they'd been given the chance to have a wonderful life?

As we begin this Christmas season of miracles let us focus on Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal hope and peace He brings to a lost world obsessed with misguided priorities and material gifts that turn to rust.

How dark, depraved, hopeless, and depressing would our world be if the angel of death had convinced Mary, a poor, unwed, pregnant Jewish teenager, that her unborn son was a burden with no chance of a wonderful life?

The Angel Gabriel delivered a different message, and we all need to open our eyes and ears to the Gift of Life.

"The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:30-32).

This Christmas Chloe would like to wish you "Peace on Earth and Good Will toward ALL people - prenatal and postnatal!"

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