I have stated many time before that the reason why so many movies, which cause us to cry and move us emotionally, inspire us is because they somehow reflect some aspect of the Gospel message.
It is not only in the movies but in real life, when we are able to see characteristic traits of the Gospel, it inspired us. I was reading a news story the other day and it almost brought me to tears. It is a story of a mother who gave up her own life so that her premature baby would survive.
Lorraine Allard found out four months into her pregnancy that she had advance stages of cancer. All her doctors advised her to terminate the fetus (by the way, I know that this is the “official” medical terminology but it gives more dignity to human life if we use the term “unborn baby”) that was 23 weeks old so that she can start chemotherapy immediately.
She was in a dilemma. She could not have both. She had to either choose to abort this baby growing in the womb, so she can start treatment for her cancer or she delays the treatment in order to give the baby an opportunity to survive.
Lorraine made a choice.
She decided to hold off on the chemotherapy long enough to give her unborn son an opportunity to survive. She finally had a C-section and delivered Liam who weighed in at 1 pound and 11 ounces.
Then two weeks after the delivery, Lorraine went through chemotherapy, but she could not fight the cancer and ended up passing away three weeks after giving birth.
Afterwards Lorraine’s husband, Martyn shared about how she told him before the birth of Liam, “If I am going to die, my baby is going to live.” Now Martyn is left with his three daughters and little Liam. He added by saying, “When Liam is old enough, I won’t tell him that Lorraine gave her life for him but I will say she made sure he had a good chance of life. She told me she didn’t want him to feel bad about it.”
Sacrifice. Selflessness. Steadfast.
Where do we find these kinds of people? How are these character traits developed in a person? It is so humbling to think that someone would do this for another person. It moves us and cause us to be amazed.
Isn’t this the Gospel message?
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Ro 5:6-8).
Can you imagine what God can do if we develop and see more of these types of people in our HMCC community?
You can read the story here.
One of the last times Lorraine got to hold Liam