A Message of Hope in the Midst of Despair

I was at my parents' home, cleaning it out for sale, when I got a text. Anyone who has ever poured over the contents of fifty years of living understands the angst that accompanies the sale of a home where precious memories waft through the air like shimmering jewels. The text interrupted our sifting through piles of photographs, files, books, drawers, cabinets, and mementos.

The text was accompanied by a photograph of a precious little newborn baby, and a message from the mom. Several months ago, she had chosen life at the abortion center where I volunteer as a pro-life sidewalk counselor with Cities4Life.

In her text, she told me her baby was finally here, and she had never experienced such joy. She said her life was forever changed, and she had me and the other pro-life volunteers to thank for that blessing. It was particularly wonderful to receive such an encouraging message in the midst of the emotional roller coaster of prepping my folks' home for sale.

This sweet mama had not known God, nor had she thought she would choose anything but abortion. Everything changed when she heard the convicting message of God's mercy, grace, salvation, and redemption through Jesus. She chose life, she chose God, and her old and destructive life made an abrupt about-face.

Due to my second surgery for breast cancer, I missed the past two Mondays at the abortion center. I return this morning, praying that God will again send me conflicted women who just need a little nudge to follow Him and listen to their maternal instincts. I will remember this little baby, who would not have breathed his first breath if my fellow sidewalk counselors and I had not been there that day when his mom thought abortion was the only choice she could make.

Cleaning out my folks home was not easy. However, periodically, I clicked on the photo of this little baby, this new life, and thought of the mama just starting on the journey my parents were finishing. It made the melancholy ebb a little to think I had played a part in that miracle of new life and new hope.

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Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

Psalm 139:13-16 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

John 10:10 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Jeremiah 1:5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”