catholicsphere

As most regular readers know, I’ve been reading “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. Last night, on page 164-5, in the chapter on “Baby Step Four: Maximize Retirement Investing”, I came upon this little morsel. It was offered as a quote by Timothy Galloway on “human potential and not being defined by what you do, but rather by who you are”. However, I read a bit more into it … and thought, while certainly related to human potential, it also made a statement about why human life needs to be nurtured, rather than murdered by things such as abortion, stem-cell research, or euthanasia.

When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice it is small, but we do not criticize it as “rootless and stemless”. We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed.

When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; we do not criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place, and give the plant the care it needs at each state of its development.

The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change: Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.

A flower is not better when it blooms than when it was merely a bud; at each stage it is the same thing … a flower in the process of expressing its potential.

As is human life, from the moment of conception, until its natural end.

Oh how I wish it were that we cultivated people with the same vigor and fervor and care that many a gardener take with each plant and flower they grow.

[tags]abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, mercy killing, human potential, life, death, faith, dave ramsey, catholicsphere[/tags]