How precious is life?

Today is Life Sunday and this week is the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. So this morning the sermon was on the value of life. Psalms 139 was the text, and Pastor Rod talked about how precious a baby is when it is born and asked if it was any less precious a minute before birth. And if not then how about a minute before that? If you back up one minute at a time, how far back do you have to go before that minute is the defining minute and life is no longer precious? And looking ahead, how old does someone have to be before their life no longer has meaning? How do we define the worth of a life? Is it based on their productivity? Is it based on their age or their size? I remember when I was getting married and the attorney wanted me to sign my husband's prenuptial agreement. The attorney looked me in the eye and said I needed to sign it to protect my husband's assets because I was "worth nothing". I know he meant financial assets, but it still stings over 20 years later. I gave up my home I was buying and let it go back to the bank and I gave up my high paying government job to relocate to where my husband wanted to live and work. But financially I was "worth nothing". And I really thought I must be worth loving or he wouldn't want to marry me. Right? But how do we place value on life? This week was a tragic week for many people. My cousin's son died at the age of 32 leaving behind a wife and two daughters. There seems to be some debate about whether it was an accident since he was in a garage with a running vehicle, although he was working on the vehicle. A house fire near here killed four young children. My dear friend's brother ended his life at age 40. How much do we value life? This weekend also, three of our friends celebrated 50th birthdays and next week another friend of ours is turning 95. Do we stop to think how valuable life is? Life is a gift we are given by God. He knew from the moment we were conceived how many days we would live. Each minute of each day is a precious gift. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are precious to Him. In His eyes I am worth as much as anybody else is. Celebrate Life!