{"id":384,"date":"2010-10-01T08:44:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T08:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html"},"modified":"2010-10-01T08:44:41","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T08:44:41","slug":"does-every-human-life-have-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html","title":{"rendered":"Does Every Human Life Have Value?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"books.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve written, in various forums<\/a>, about the topic of my
\nforthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift<\/i>,
\nquite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every
\nhuman life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only
\nwe have eyes and hearts to see and receive it. Which is to say, I’ve come to
\nlearn that–independent of physical ability, IQ, beauty, and the like–each and
\nevery human being has something to give other human beings. <\/p>\n

But the question arises, in my own mind, and from others: Do
\nI really mean it? It’s one thing to say that Penny’s life is valuable. She can
\nwalk. She can talk. She can tell knock-knock jokes and “make her friends funny”
\n(which means “make them laugh”). She can help me unload the dishwasher and “read”
\nbooks and jump “super-high.” <\/p>\n

What about the individuals who never do<\/i> anything? Who never say “I love you”? Who never crawl up the
\nstairs? What about the babies who die young? What about the elderly whose
\nbrains have been overtaken with Alzheimer’s? Do I really mean it when I say
\nthat everyone<\/i> is valuable? Everyone<\/i> has something to offer? <\/p>\n

I do. In part, its an article of faith for me to believe
\nthat God has created us “in his image,” that all of us reflect some part of God’s
\nnature, which is to say, all of us have been given a way to bless other humans.
\nBut part of it comes from reading the stories of those who have lived with and
\nloved the individuals who are powerless, the ones who are physically and
\nmentally incapable. Christopher De Vinck’s The
\nPower of the Powerless<\/a><\/i> is filled with such stories. It tells of the
\nprofound presence of his younger brother Oliver, who spent most of his life in
\nbed without being able to communicate with his siblings and who was able to
\nminister to them nonetheless. Hans Reinders <\/a>Receiving
\nthe Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology and
\nEthics<\/a><\/i> offers a more academic treatment of the same subject. Reinders looks
\nat Kelly, a woman with microcephaly (a very small brain) and wonders how it is
\nthat Kelly might offer herself and receive from others. <\/p>\n

If you wonder whether all human life has value, even in
\nmysterious ways, ways difficult to quantify, I commend these books to you.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve written, in various forums, about the topic of my forthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift, quite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every human life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only we have eyes and hearts to see and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-disability","category-faith","category-what-im-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Every Human Life Have Value? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Every Human Life Have Value? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve written, in various forums, about the topic of my forthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift, quite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every human life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only we have eyes and hearts to see and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-01T08:44:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/books-thumb-150x174-15976.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Every Human Life Have Value? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Every Human Life Have Value? - Thin Places","og_description":"I’ve written, in various forums, about the topic of my forthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift, quite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every human life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only we have eyes and hearts to see and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-10-01T08:44:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/books-thumb-150x174-15976.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html","name":"Does Every Human Life Have Value? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/books-thumb-150x174-15976.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-01T08:44:41+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-01T08:44:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/books-thumb-150x174-15976.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/books-thumb-150x174-15976.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/does-every-human-life-have-value.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does Every Human Life Have Value?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}