Until the Time of Singing

I turned the heat on for the first time this morning. Ragnar, our visitor from Siberia, is thrilled with the arctic blast. I huddled by the heater with a steamy cup of coffee. He told me that the sooner we got out for our run in that frosty morning, the better.

I will be honest, a touch of dread fills me as winter approaches. The older I get, the more challenging the cold becomes for me. I stand for several hours several mornings a week on the sidewalk of the busiest abortion center in the SE. Even moderate cold chills me to the bone. And it is always colder in front of the abortion center. What is happening in that building sends a mind-numbing chill to the entire community...as it should.

Which makes me doubly sad that sometimes we cannot fill the sidewalks with enough volunteers to effectively reach the women with our offers of help and resources, and the love of Christ. It is our city that hosts this horror. It is in our city that dozens of babies die gruesome deaths there everyday. Where are the Christ-followers who have the only message that can truly change this culture of death? Maybe sitting in their nice warm homes...

They are missing out. I received two texts this week with photos of new babies born to moms Cities4Life had helped who chose life over abortion. My favorite: "I can't wait for you to meet him. If you hadn't been there, he wouldn't be here."

I pulled out my heated jacket and heated gloves and recharged the batteries to be ready for the chilly day forecast for today. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing the sequel of my latest series for publication. The series is fiction, but based upon people and events I encounter at the abortion center. It is told through the eyes of a former abortion worker as she comes to know God, forgiveness, and redemption through Christ. On the journey with her is a dog who almost talks her language. I called the dog Bo, surprisingly before my first grandson was conceived...who is named Beau.

Ragnar is excited by the cold, and I am facing it with trepidation. If you are curled up on your warm couch and want to be prepared to read the second book in my new series which might encourage you to be a part of the ministry that helps women choose life, you can find the first book HERE.  While it deals with a very serious subject, it is told with humor and there's a mystery and love story to spice the interest.

Ragnar eyes my heated apparel, and snickers. He, like Bo in my novel, can almost speak English as well. He tells me, "60 degrees is a heat-wave where my ancestors come from." 

"That may be," I reply, "But I don't have a fur coat like you. I have batteries, and the warmth that comes from knowing winter will pass, and the hope that one day babies will be safe in their mothers' wombs again."

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land