Choose Life

My mother went to be with the Lord this past summer. I have had many moments remembering times when I visited her in Iowa. One time we were in the living room watching the news when there was a report about abortion. “How can anyone kill a child?”, she lamented as tears rolled down her cheeks. In February 1963 on Lincoln’s Birthday my mother lost my sister, Sandra, in childbirth. She grieved the rest of her life up to the day she died asking, “Do you think I will see her again one day?” The recent news on the abortion front has been appalling. This is not a political but a moral statement. A nation that allows the killing of children from conception to birth will not survive. History has proven over and over that any nation that devalues life, especially children, the disabled and elderly eventually collapses. The early Christians rescued Roman children who were put out for “exposure” to die if the parents did not want them. I have read about my Viking heritage where the Christians made an impact by rescuing the unwanted and changed their society. They did so because life does not come from the mother (or father) but from God Almighty. He is the giver and taker of life, who even in the Constitution of the United States is called the Creator. The Bible puts it poetically in Psalm 139:13-14, “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.” This obsession with infanticide does not go unnoticed by God and He will judge America no different than other nations. But He also has mercy and grace. For the one who has been involved in having, encouraging, performing or legislating abortion there is forgiveness in Jesus. He calls us individually and as a nation to repent and turn from our sinful, wicked ways. There is also hope as a follower of Christ. If you have lost a child, even from abortion, one day you will see them again because they are held in God’s hand. My sisters and I encouraged our faithful Mother in her last moments, “Sandra is waiting for you.” She turned and looked at us with the biggest smile. When she died she left a testimony of peace on her face. It must be quite a celebration in Heaven! Choose Life...