May
2008
cherishing life
This morning, I had the opportunity to help with a Life Walk fund raiser for our local crises pregnancy center in Niles, Michigan. In between helping people get registered for the walk and catching my papers from blowing away in the early morning breeze off the river, I had time to think about what we were doing.
Every Tuesday, an doctor comes over from Chicago to Niles to perform abortions. The Crises Pregnancy Center is empty on Tuesdays. The media would have us believe that the abortion debate is over, that the American public is tired of talking about abortion, that apathy is taking over the zeal that once characterized the pro-life movement. Regardless of which candidate takes office next January, we will not have a president who upholds the intrinsic value of human life from the earliest moments of conception.
From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred in this country. 45 million. Given the infant mortality rate of .0093, that is 44.5 million children in this country that were never given the choice to live. 44.5 million people who would be my peers, my friends, my mate. That is incredibly sad.
In the book of Exodus, we read of another government who legalized the killing of innocent children. In the midst of this ancient culture that devalued human life, we see the faith of four women who cherished and defended life. Two midwives, given by name, Shiphrah and Puah, are recorded as ones who feared God and did not do as the pharaoh commanded. (I think it is interesting that the names of two ordinary Jewish midwives are mentioned by God, yet the name of the most powerful ruler on the earth at the time, the pharaoh of Egypt, is unidentified by name.)
The other women mentioned in relation to the defense of life are Jochebed, Moses’ mother, and Miriam, Moses’ sister. “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.” (Ex 2:2-4)
Four women, whose faith in the God who gives life, were used by God to shape the history and destiny of an entire nation.
Today over 200 people from the Niles area showed up early on a Saturday morning to give their support to a center who is defending and cherishing human life every day. The debate is far from over; the battle is not lost. No, we may never change our government policies. Roe v. Wade may never be overturned. We will probably not be able to stop Planned Parenthood from building the largest abortion clinic in the country in Houston, Texas. Yes, we need to do our part to support our local crises pregnancy centers and participate in prolife events.
But that is not where the battle lies. The real battle lies in the hearts and minds of women and girls; women and girls who need to see and embrace the value of their life before God and the value of their unborn child’s life. We need a revival of life. And that is a supernatural work of God.
