The Irony of Killing An Unborn Child During Christmas Season

It was a very chilly morning at the abortion center yesterday and it will be a chilly morning today as well. But all our hearts were warmed when four women chose life for their little babies. There were no spectacular stories shared, just the quiet miracles of four women changing their mind at that critical last hour. 

I had been very distracted driving in, which is often the case around holidays when there is so much going on in my life. I had to consciously pray out loud a few times, “Please Lord, my heart is so distracted by so many things. Help me to focus on our mission today on the sidewalk.“

I prayed that God would help me to speak His truth that would somehow permeate the shell of sin and hardness that covered so many of the people I would encounter that morning. I love what Charles Spurgeon reminds us is critical in speaking and living truth: Be it ours today, O gracious Spirit, to be ruled and governed by thy divine authority, so that nothing false or sinful may reign in our hearts, lest it extend its malignant influence to our daily walk among men.

The malignant influence can creep in subtly. Angry, bitter, or self-righteous thoughts can quickly poison interactions that may begin with the best of intentions. A harried, worried spirit can usurp the work of the Holy Spirit. Help me be governed by the divine authority and His truth.

I arrived and none of my Cities4Life team members were there yet. However, a couple of the women from the local Pregnancy Resource Center were shivering together on the sidewalk. They hugged me and said they were happy to see me and would I like to pray with them? They had come down the street when they saw no one else on the sidewalk, but knew I would be coming soon. They said they wanted to pray with me. It was such a blessing because their prayer washed away all the troubling thoughts of which I’d been obsessing.   

It is so easy to let our hearts be distracted by worries and cares that move us away from the mission on which God has sent us. While worries and cares are often legitimate, when they take us away from giving our full effort to do what God has called us to do, we need to find a way to refocus.          

       

As we enter the Christmas season, I know I will not be alone in being overextended and distracted. And yet the sad result is sometimes the flurry of activity removes us from the whole reason for all that activity in the first place. Christmas is not about celebrating getting or giving the perfect gift, or decorating a house to rival Martha Stewart, or baking the best cookie EVER. We are celebrating the birth of God come to earth in human form with the purpose of dying that we might live and be set free from the penalty of our sin.

The celebration of the birth of Jesus is a good one as is remembering how He came to earth:  fragile, vulnerable, innocent, and dependent. Juxtapose the image of that holy baby and His mission with the plight of all those unborn children and their mothers’ mission as they flock to the abortion center with increasing intensity as the holidays approach. The college students rush there over their Christmas break so they can return to college in the new year with an empty womb and their worries supposedly eradicated.

      

What a grievous, ironic tragedy that they believe killing their child will relieve their burdens so they can relax and celebrate the birth of the child who came to save them from their sins.

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Isaiah 9:6 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.