Precious Life Unseen

On the fifteenth of May, in the jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, He was splashing…enjoying the jungle’s great joys…When Horton the elephant heard a small noise. (taken from Horton Hears A Who by Dr. Suess)

I had forgotten about this sweet story until my youngest daughter and I decided to reminisce and watch the DVD the other night.
I then pulled out our copy of the book and reread the wonderful story.

Since he is an elephant, Horton has large ears.
They are large enough to hear sounds that no one else can hear.
As he was in the pool, Horton heard a faint sound…a sound of someone calling for help.
Upon further investigation, he discovers that a small speck of dust was calling to him.

A small speck of dust that was on top of some clover.
No one in the jungle believed Horton!
He was teased and bullied…they tried to convince Horton to put down the clover.
They wanted him to get rid of the ridiculous notion that anything lived on that tiny speck.

As the speck spoke to him…Horton listened.
He learned that there was an entire town on the speck…the town of Whoville.
The person he was listening to was the mayor of the town.
Whoville was in danger and Horton promised to protect them.

“Should I put this speck down?”…Horton thought with alarm. “If I do, these small persons may come to great harm. I can’t put it down. And I won’t!
After all, A person’s a person. No matter how small.”

The voices in the jungle of Nool became nastier and nastier.
The elephant’s talking to Who’s who are not! There aren’t any Who’s!
And they don’t have a mayor! And we’re going to stop all this nonsense! So there! 

An angry bird snatched the clover from Horton’s trunk.
The bird carried off the clover with the tiny speck on it.
Horton followed on a perilous journey until the bird viciously dropped the tiny speck in a field full of clover…challenging Horton to find his speck.

Horton searched for hours and found nothing.
Nothing until the “three millionth flower”.
He found the Who’s who lived on the speck…though in the frantic flight, in the bird’s mouth, their town was damaged.

A Sour Kangaroo wanted Horton to say that he never heard the speck speak.
She wanted him to take back what he said.
She wanted him to admit that the speck was just a speck and not a person.

Horton could not do that…so he was caged and they threatened to boil him in oil.

He pleaded with the mayor to gather the Who’s together and make all the noise they could.
So much noise that all the jungle of Nool could hear and believe that they existed.

Horton could hear the mayor’s pleading…but no one else could hear him.
As he was being caged, Horton called out to the mayor.
“Don’t give up! I believe in you all! A person’s a person no matter how small! And you very small persons will not have to die if you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and try!”

Everyone in Whoville made noise…but it was not loud enough.
Then the mayor of Whoville found one little Who that was not making a sound.
“This”, cried the mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour! The time for all Whos who have blood that is red to come to the aid of their country!” he said. “We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts! So, open you mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”

And that one extra voice…that was silent before…made all the difference.
The jungle of Nool finally heard the voices that they couldn’t hear before.
Now they knew that the speck was really a person.

_______________________________________________________________________

The whole time I watched this little movie with my daughter, and later when I re-read the book, all I could think of was the unborn.

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade…a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.
The Court deemed abortion a fundamental right under the Constitution.
Since this law was passed in 1973, millions of babies have been killed.
An entire generation has been lost!

The abortion debate has always close to my heart since I was adopted.
My natural mother was a young teenager when she delivered me.
She made the brave decision to put me up for adoption.
She was so young and could not properly care for me.

If she had chosen to abort me…my husband would not have his wife of thirty-one years.
My five children would never have been born.
These words I write…that you read each day…would never have been written.
The effect of one life.

A writer can never guess just how his words will be taken…what thoughts and feelings they may trigger…how the reader will respond.
The message of the story of Horton, though perhaps unintended by the author, spoke clearly to me concerning the unborn life in the womb.

A tiny speck…in the beginning.
A life…no matter how small!
From the moment of conception…everything that little baby will one day be…is genetically present.
All the baby needs is time…and protection…inside the mother.

We all need to be Hortons.
We all need to have ears, big enough to hear the desperate cry of the unborn.
Can we be the one needed voice…the voice that finally makes the difference?

Since the voice of the unborn is imperceptible to many…WE need to be their voice.
We need to make all the noise we can so that the skeptics will hear their cry!

Think of your own life.
What a huge void there would be if you were not living!
What a tragedy if you were not allowed to live…through no fault of your own.
Imagine someone else making the decision…whether you live or die!

Do you hear their tiny cry?
Will you protect them?
No matter how small, they are HIS…they matter to God…greatly!

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in that secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)