“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

These words of King David articulate the profound and marvelous truth that from the very beginning of our lives, God was there — caring, loving, creating and investing in us. Many of us can recite these words by heart. We intuitively know they are important words to remember and to let sink deep into our consciousness. We join with David in awe of a God who would consider us in such a special way — and not just us, but every single human life.

He knows and loves each one.

God created human beings in his image. Thus, every human life from conception to death bears the image of God and has inestimable worth. We hold a consistent ethic of life that safeguards the essential nature of human life at all stages, including migrant children at the U.S./Mexico border, women who have been sexually abused, those who are addicted to opioids, and on and on. The National Association of Evangelicals’ document, “For the Health of the Nation” (NAE.org/forthehealth), reflects this ethic of life, and we recommend it to all Christians for personal and group study.

As Kelly Rosati describes in the cover article, the abortion conversation has recently garnered increased national attention with the introduction of conflicting state legislation and mounting pressure for the Supreme Court to weigh in. There are also pressing issues in biotechnology impacting the future of human life that Christians need to consider (see Jeff Hardin’s article on Page 18).

In this particular moment of national attention on the unborn, we offer this magazine issue as a starting place to consider the current conversation and where we might go from here — not as political pawns, but as people who seek to love as God loves, including loving those who are not yet born.