The Parable of the Lost Sheep

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. ~ Matthew 18:10-14













Letter to the Editor





On Thursday THIS opinion piece was printed in the Detroit Free Press. When I notified my friend who shares a similar conception story as myself, she told me the same article had appeared in USA Today the day before.





That evening I wrote and emailed this letter to the author and editors of both newspapers:





Dear David Mastio, June 13, 2019





I don’t know you. I may have unknowingly read one of your pieces in the past, but before today, the fact of your existence escaped me.





I saw your opinion piece (“Abortion restrictions can still protect choice”) in the Detroit Free Press today (June 13, 2019) which appeared in USA Today yesterday.





A quick search of your name revealed what I would have suspected, you’re getting “raked over the coals”, as you put it on Twitter, by both abortion supporters and pro-life advocates.





A quick visit to your Facebook page added depth to my “David Mastio” search. There you are, next to a beautiful boy and a Boxer.





We have two beautiful boys and two lovely girls and an Amish farm cat. The humans and animals we love bring us all great joy. I and my lovely children would not be here today if my 19-year-old college sophomore mother who was raped had decided that I was better off dead.





Thank God she chose to protect me, despite the protestations of her mother, who wanted me aborted. Thank God federal law protected me in 1970. Thank God despite the emotional anguish she must have experienced during her pregnancy, she protected me. Thank God another family wanted to love and care for me. Thank God for my awesome adoptive parents.





I am pro-choice. I am a member of one of the most pro-woman nations in the world and product of a society that values my autonomy: I can vote, I can work outside the home, I can choose my college and my mate. Yes, I am pro-choice!





But neither God nor the government I choose to live under ever gave me, you or anybody else the right to choose to kill someone. You acknowledge the unborn is human, which is more than many pro-abortion proponents admit! Science now clearly reveals what Justice Blackmun and six other activist Supreme Court justices in 1973 didn’t have the benefit of seeing: preborn babies are not clumps of cells.





Call it whatever you like, embryo, fetus, baby. It is a distinct, living human. And because he or she is dependent on his or her mother to survive necessarily entrusts him or her to his or her provider. Just like a toddler (a teenager!) or an incapacitated adult. Ever heard of the SLED Test ?





Last month , Justice Thomas had the audacity to suggest that a pregnant woman is a mother. According to Justice Ginsburg, she’s only a mother if she’s not choosing an abortion. Since when does a subjective desire metaphysically change the substance of an object? But this is the wacky, wicked world in which we live.





A wise prophet once said :

What sorrow for those who say

that evil is good and good is evil,

that dark is light and light is dark,

that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.





How sorrowful a day we live in, when women #shoutyourabortion and men propagate the lie that abortion is safer than pregnancy. Evil good and good evil.





I’m all for bodily autonomy. No one else should have the right to insert anything in my body without my permission. But whether we choose to have intercourse and become pregnant or are forcibly impregnanted (a.k.a. rape & incest), does not change the reality or value of the conceived.





Women do not have to have sex. If one is raped and becomes pregnant, there are myriad compassionate people willing to come alongside her, to love and care for her and her baby. [These same resources are available to all mothers, no matter how the baby is conceived.]





We underestimate women’s strength, resolve and compassion. Strength to endure a pregnancy that she did not choose. Resolve to care for herself and the miraculous life within her. Compassion to raise a child borne of painful circumstances or allow another to do so. Beauty from ashes.





All human beings—regardless of size, skin color, level of development, race, gender and circumstances of conception—should be valued and protected. No exceptions. People, we can do so much better. Let’s!





Shawn Spry









Springtime in Paris, MI ~ a doe and her fawn caught on our motion-sensor camera





Yesterday, a dear friend sent me THIS AMAZING ARTICLE, linked below:





https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/01/abortion-roe-v-wade-unborn-children-women-feminism-march-life/

"If you were in charge of a nature preserve and you noticed that the pregnant female mammals were trying to miscarry their pregnancies, eating poisonous plants or injuring themselves, what would you do? Would you think of it as a battle between the pregnant female and her unborn and find ways to help those pregnant animals miscarry? No, of course not. You would immediately think, “Something must be really wrong in this environment.” Something is creating intolerable stress, so much so that animals would rather destroy their own offspring than bring them into the world. You would strive to identify and correct whatever factors were causing this stress in the animals,"

said Frederica Mathewes-Green:

"I changed my opinion on abortion after I read an article in Esquire magazine, way back in 1976."

Here is that article:





https://classic.esquire.com/article/1976/1/1/what-i-saw-at-the-abortion





Fatherhood

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. ~ Psalm 127:3-4





Blessings and love to ALL you DADS out there, and a big SHOUT OUT to this awesome one...





Scott Spry's first son, at 18 weeks gestation, already sporting a handsome jawline like his father





Proud Daddy with Jacob Edward, April 1998





Second-born son Aaron Ray chillin' with Dad at Cook's Dairy Farm in Ortonville, August 2016





Bella Marie and Scott Edward in their happy place in Paris, Michigan ~ 2008





A contemplative daddy-daughter moment ala stogie on Bailey June's 18th birthday