Every child is a gift from God.
I made that statement a few days ago at Thomas Road Baptist Church and I’ve made it before. It is a statement of great truth because Scripture tells us that God ministers to us even before we are born.
My statement is also a troubling one when we consider that close to 59 million babies have been aborted in our nation since 1973’s Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling. More than 400,000 innocent lives have been taken this year alone in our nation.
We recently featured a short video presentation at church featuring a lady named Nancy Lee. Nancy was a nurse when Roe v. Wade became law and she spoke of how nurses at that time were traumatized by the sudden mandate that their hospitals begin to perform abortions. Many of them, she said, left the profession. Nancy also recounted how she and her husband were so devastated to learn that they could not have children. She began to see in the babies being aborted lives that she would have gladly taken into their home.
Thankfully, Nancy and her husband were eventually able to adopt five sons and they are a great family. We celebrate that family because they are a testament to what God can do even when our dreams seem to have died.
The fact is that there are many Christian families that want to welcome little babies into their homes. But abortion has become so convenient, such an insignificance to many Americans.
On that same Sunday, we held a service wherein we dedicated several babies to the Lord. This is always such a special time as our members stand before the congregation and proclaim that they want God to lead them as they raise their children in His ways.
As I led the dedication service with those parents and all those precious little children, it is difficult for me not to think of those children that never had a chance to take a first breath because our law says they have no rights. It is a modern tragedy.
The church today needs to be calling people to a relationship with God — that is our first priority. But we must also be leading the way in calling our nation to end the dreadfulness of abortion and leading the celebration of all life as a gift from Almighty God.
Our Lord loves children and so should we. Christian friends, don’t ever be ashamed of the pro-life cause — no matter what the world says — because I believe it is of God. And remember that II Timothy encourages us that we should never be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.