Today is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and if there’s one thing the church should lead the way in, it should be valuing life.

Think about it—No doubt we stand against abortion, praying and working to end the murder of babies. For sure we take time to appropriately grieve when someone dies, stopping our schedules for funerals and visits. Too often, however, miscarriages are seen in a different light, almost as a “blip on the medical radar.” It’s too often seen as a just a procedure . . . an “oops, try again next time” type of situation. Admittedly, this isn’t intentional. But it is still unfortunate.

In reality, if we believe life begins at conception (and I do), then that miscarriage is a loss of actual life. The death of a real person. A human being is no longer living. Parents are grieving. A breathing, God-created baby has died.

Valuing that life matters, too. Of course, the nuts and bolts of how to do that better in our churches isn’t the focus of the post. But it is my hope—and aim in this post— to simply spur each of us to remembering the many couples among us who deal with the pain of miscarriage and infant loss.

So today, why not jot an encouraging email to a friend who is experiencing this pain? Or text a comforting verse to the woman in the distress of consecutive losses? Take a meal to a family in the middle of coping with one of more miscarriages? Sop by and pray with that couple who just loss their child in the first trimester? Just do something to remember them and their child(ren). Even the simplest action carries great weight and shows we value life. Yes, a life that, though we never got to see him or her, was crafted and knit together by God in its mother’s womb.

Helpful links related to this subject:

Dr. Heidi Warner on Open-Handed Hope (article)

Teske Drake and Dr. Heidi Warner share their stories (podcast)

Mommies with Hope (organization)