This week we observe the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. One of my favorite miracle-of-life stories was written by Malcolm Muggeridge. He was an English journalist who spent a lot of time interviewing Mother Teresa and documenting her life and work. Muggeridge wrote:

“Once when I was in Calcutta with Mother Teresa she picked up one of those so-called ‘unwanted’ babies which had come into the care of her Missionaries of Charity. It had been salvaged from a dustbin, and was so minute one wondered it could exist at all. When I remarked on this a look of exultation came into Mother Teresa's face, ‘See,’ she said, ‘there's life in it!’ So there was; and suddenly it was as though I were present at the Bethlehem birth, and the baby Mother Teresa was holding was another Lamb of God sent into the world to lighten our darkness. How could we know? How dared we prognosticate upon what made life worthwhile for this or that child?

I try to keep Mother Teresa’s joy for life in my heart. Life is indeed a miracle-packed. There is such great potential for divine activity to be enfleshed at any given moment in each human life. We should no sooner disregard a single human life than we would discard a lottery ticket before the winning numbers were drawn. Who knows what might happen! Who knows what thrill might await! Marvel well in the gift of life.