We went out to breakfast this morning in the Colorado mountain town of Edwards, near Vail, where we are staying with dear friends. It’s Tim’s 60th birthday and we’ve had the most marvelous visit for the past ten days or so. Lots of snowshoeing in the backcountry … exhausting work traipsing up forested trails to alpine meadows in fresh snow but I remarked that this is what heaven must be like at 18 degrees. 🙂

All of this was a counterpoint to a disturbing image in the restaurant this morning. Two twenty-something couples sat in a booth nearby and as they passed and sat down, I read the phrases on their sweatshirts.

The woman’s said, “Trash the Fetus” and the man’s said, “Eye Hate God.”

My first thought was that this was pretty brazen stuff. In-your-face and not the kind of thing one sees every day. I’m all for free speech but this was pure attention-getting and I tried to wrap my head around who they were and what they were actually thinking.

Of course, I know a lot about atheism and the rejection of God as a theory. Objectivism, Rationalism and Naturism are all philosophically grounded in the belief there is no all-powerful supernatural being.

I’m very familiar with the Roe v. Wade decision and most of the debate points on the issue of abortion. I also am aware of the complexities involved in trying to determine how the legal system should respond to the issue, whichis a perfect confluence of science and morality. It confronts fundamental facets of human life … its meaning and significance. I happen to harbor my own strong feelings on the issue and I’m certainly not alone in that. But, to celebrate “trashing” a fetus is, to me, just plain repugnant which is why I was immediately taken aback.

It’s no secret that I “fought” God for decades. My wrestling was with the concept of such a Being in light of so much suffering and evil in the world. But, I never “hated” God. I’m not sure of the phrase on the man’s sweatshirt that said “Eye (as opposed to I) Hate God.” Nevertheless, my mind pretty quickly put these things aside as I remembered an amazing truth.

God loves them as completely and fully as he loves me and everyone else. Just because they reject him and seem to celebrate in that rejection … just because they see a developing human being as garbage, does not reduce by one iota his unconditional love for them. And, I am called to do the same.

So I prayed. I prayed that their hearts would turn from violence to compassion. That, should they question the idea of God, they should also pursue a life similar to the one Jesus proposed … one of service and charity, forgiveness and grace and, most importantly of love.

Lord, I suspect they really don’t hate you, if for no other reason than that they don’t know you. I rejected you in no uncertain terms as Saul of Tarsus did two thousand years ago before he emerged as the apostle Paul. But, you are the hound of heaven, the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to recover the one. I pray that the young man and young woman I saw this morning will some day hear your voice and say, “yes.” Amen.