Though I have birthed only two children, I am mother to nine. Being of the “Suck it up, Buttercup” ilk, I did not take the time to grieve each of my losses as five little ones went home to their heavenly Father without the pleasure of meeting their earthly parents. Over the years, I found peace in the thought that my heavenly Father would parent my five little ones far better than I could have, but I confess that I calculate ages and look at young adults the ages of my heaven-based children and wonder if my children would have been like them. Many years after my husband decided to put an end to this repeating trauma through surgery, we welcomed two beautiful children to our home through adoption.
I rarely question God’s wisdom in giving me only two of my seven biological children. Frankly, I don’t see the point. He has blessed me with a beautiful life filled with meaningful relationships. I cannot imagine my life any fuller. However, the events of this past year related to Planned Parenthood and the abortion issue making its way to my Facebook feed repeatedly reopens wounds and forces me to think through… Jonah? Yes, Jonah.
I know, that was a twist you didn’t see coming. You see, Jonah had a big problem. God asked him to take His most precious message of grace and mercy to the people Jonah felt deserved nothing more than God’s judgment. God rebuked Jonah—rather creatively, I might add—and challenged his thinking. He pointed out to Jonah that while he focused on what the Ninevites had done wrong—and there was plenty—they were human beings with souls who needed the message of grace and forgiveness. Jonah was more concerned with justice than with the souls of over 100,000 human souls. No one could change the savagery of the Assyrians, whose capital was Nineveh. The Ninevites themselves could not change their history, but God had a plan. Jonah was mad. How dare God extend his longsuffering to such horrible people! I’m afraid that’s the message we send to the millions, not thousands or hundreds, but millions of mothers who have made a very painful decision in their pasts. I face down the challenge myself, to guard against lashing out at those who would take the lives of their precious unborn children when I so desperately wanted to hold my own.
How do we behave ourselves on social media in a way that draws people toward Christ instead of driving them away? When every other post feels like a Bible-shaped hammer, pounding them for a decision many of them probably already regret, I suspect we’re doing very little to draw those souls toward the person of Christ, and get this: Every one of those souls is an image bearer of Christ!
Planned Parenthood, however condemnation-worthy an organization it is, has no soul. I cannot imagine an argument to defend the behaviors—nor did God ever try to defend Nineveh’s behavior. The organization, however, is made up of human souls: souls of doctors and nurses who have participated in Assyrian-level atrocities. BUT GOD knows better than we do. We cannot undo what these souls have done in the past, but we can try seeing them as God sees them, in need of mercy, just as we are. Let’s examine our hearts and be sure we don’t miss the point so completely as Jonah did.
…and that’s the view from My Front Porch.
Original photography by Karner Blue Photography
Amen!