Chewymom

Here’s a thought I was mulling over this morning. Is it possible that because abortion is legal in our country, it allows for a greater testimony of God’s goodness and grace when a person chooses life?

I know a young girl who has learned that she is pregnant. I was thinking about the agony of discovering her pregnancy. And then the fear she must have felt in telling her parents. I know of the distress they felt, wondering even if her father might lose his job, because he is in Christian ministry. (He didn’t.) At so many turns, it must have been tempting to let her mind turn to the “what if” of abortion. Or maybe even the “if only.” What would her life be like if she just quietly aborted the baby and never told anyone?

In so many ways this girl’s life has changed. She gave up life in a college town to move home and go to a community college. Not only that, but she will continue her classes this year, and then she will take a break for at least a semester, and maybe for an entire year. Eventually she plans to go back to school locally and get her degree while her parents help her raise her child. She is not planning to marry the father right away–she is a believer, he is not. She will be a single mom at least for the short-term, and possibly forever. Gone are her dreams of being a collegiate girl, of getting the degree she planned in four years, of finding a mate, enjoying time getting to know him before kids, and then settling down and starting a family. Her life is turned upside-down. Dreams are dashed. If she aborted, life could go on as planned. But she has chosen life.

As her life progresses, she has a testimony. She will be able to tell women who follow after her that even though she could have aborted and had an easier life for herself, she made a choice. She kept a baby who rocked her world and turned things upside down. She chose a hard path. And even if that path proves difficult over and over and over again, there is a little soul who can live and love and learn of Jesus. She will have a story to tell others.

If this girl lived in a country where abortion was illegal, she would never have made a choice. There would have been no choice to make. Her story would simply be, “I had the baby because I had no choice. I had to.” Granted she could choose adoption, but still. The testimony of her journey, of her making the difficult decision would be gone.

There is beauty in having a choice. There is risk, yes. Think of what God risked by allowing Eve to make a choice. Why did he allow there to be tempting fruit in the first place? Without that fruit, without that decision on the part of Eve, we would never know badness and sin and evil. And yet, without knowing sin, would we really know God, completely and fully? Could we get the goodness of God without knowing our own badness?

And in the same way, could we know the goodness of choosing life if we never knew the badness of choosing abortion? Would the sacrifice have meaning if there was no other option?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under Biblical Thinking, Current Events, Dreaded Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.