While choosing life is always the right decision, it’s not always easy. There is a myriad of nuanced difficulties that surround life and death issues that simply cannot be dismissed. We must wade into the fray of the abortion discussion with grace, patience, and confidence.
Today the Supreme Court of the United States of America released its decision to overturn the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade. This is a massive victory for life, for babies in the womb. While it may be viewed as merely a legal decision, it is in fact a declaration through our legal system that the sanctity of life in the womb matters.
Life is a gift from God. Life originates in Him, from Him, and to Him. God desires that we not only experience and enjoy life here on earth, but He sent His only begotten Son to us that we might enjoy eternal life too. Life is valuable and vital. As followers of Jesus, we are called to and commanded to, and we must value, celebrate, and protect life at all stages.
Watching the value of life lost in our country and world is tragic. You could say that our government and many influenced by our culture have lost their common sense. But that is the consequence of sin. It skews the mind. Selfishness will always choose to protect self. The only life that seems to be valued is the one that is living. When choice and freedom are mentioned, they are always favoring the one that’s alive making the choice!
When looking at a baby in the womb, a precious grandmother in a convalescent home, or a strong young man in a coma lying helplessly in an ICU bed, all fully alive, the discussion turns quickly from life to the “quality of life” rather than life itself. It’s a coy way of changing the focus and dismissing life on its face. While it sounds noble, it is turning the discussion away from the vulnerable and putting it on the decision-maker; the quality of life for the decision-maker is now the determining factor.
Friend, God values life. He loves human life.
Genesis 1:15-28 (NKJV) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them…
Human beings are the crown jewel of God’s creation and worthy of life from the moment of conception!
Psalms 139:14-17 (NKJV) I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
According to the Bible, science, and common sense, there is never a point in time when there is something ‘non-human’ in the womb. Never in a woman’s womb is something ‘non-human.’ Personhood and personality come into existence at the instantaneous moment of conception!
In an effort to dehumanize the baby in the womb, the word “fetus” has become the main word to describe him. Do you know what the definition of that word is? It comes to us from the Latin meaning, ‘offspring, bringing forth, hatching of young. A fetus is the human offspring of another human!
That precious baby in the womb grows at an incredible speed:
INSTANTANEOUS – conception takes place.
Seven days – tiny human implants in mother’s uterus.
Eighteen days – heart begins to beat.
Twenty-one days – pumps own blood through the separate closed circulatory system.
Twenty-eight days – eye, ear, and respiratory systems begin to form.
Forty-two days – brain waves recorded, skeleton complete, reflexes present.
Eight weeks – all body systems present.
Nine weeks – squints, swallows, moves the tongue, makes a fist.
Eleven weeks – spontaneous breathing, fingernails, all body systems working.
Twelve weeks – weighs one ounce.
Sixteen weeks – genital organs clearly defined, grasps with hands, swims, kicks, turns, somersaults (still not felt by the mother.)
Eighteen weeks – vocal cords work – can cry.
Twenty weeks – has hair on the head, weighs one pound, 12 inches long.
It’s amazing to consider isn’t?
Jeremiah 1:4-5 (NKJV) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Today, June 24, 2022, we learned that the Supreme Court of the United States of America overturned the landmark case of Woe v. Wade which made abortion a constitutionally protected right for the last 50 years. We are grateful for this reversal. It’s a good, God-honoring decision of the court. You can be sure that much vitriol, rioting, and nastiness will follow. In the fog of all the coming debates, don’t lose sight of the value of human life at every stage. The value of human life transcends all legal decisions.
You must continue praying with a readiness to obey God in caring for mothers, babies, and children.
