Mark's Remarks 11/23

Canfield and Hansen told of a school teacher who, at Thanksgiving time, asked her class of first-graders to draw a
picture of something they were thankful for. She thought of how little these children from poor neighborhoods actually had to be thankful for, but she knew that most of them would draw pictures of turkeys or tables with food. The teacher was taken aback with the picture Douglas handed in. It was a simple, childishly drawn hand.

But whose hand? She held it up and asked her class, “Whose hand do you think this is that Douglas drew?”
"I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food," said one child.
"A farmer," said another, "because he grows the turkeys."
Later, when the others were at work, the teacher bent over Douglas's desk and asked whose hand it was. "It's your hand, Teacher," he mumbled. She recalled that frequently at recess she had taken Douglas, a scrubby forlorn child, by the hand. She often did that with the children, but it meant so much to Douglas. **
This holiday, think of the many hands for which you are powerfully grateful. Your mother’s, your spouse’s, a grandchild’s, a lover’s. For different reasons, we have limitless gratitude for the touch of another.
How do others feel about your hands? We sometimes forget that the only hands God has are our hands. A hand stretched out in love to "one of the least of these" is a hand that reflects a thankful heart. Maya Angelou once said something very beautiful and meaningful: "Giving," she said, "liberates the soul of the believer." Are you liberated this year?

**Cited in Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 1993), p. 133.

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I gave a mistaken number last Sunday when I said there were 300 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. There have been, in China.
The following is a statement released this year by the Guttmacher Institute regarding US abortions.
In 2005, the U.S. abortion rate declined to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, continuing the downward trend that started after the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 in 1981, according to a new Guttmacher Institute census of U.S. abortion providers. The abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974. The number of abortions declined as well, to a total of 1.2 million in 2005, 25% below the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990.
Despite these declines, slightly more than one in five pregnancies ended in abortion in 2005, an indicator of how much still needs to be done to help women and their partners avoid unintended pregnancy.
We will be privileged to do all we can to support birth control and pregnancy planning for all.