Looking Under the Covers

 

I often pray for God to give me good illustrations and applications for something I am writing. Illustrations help to get a point across that may be difficult to grasp.

Yesterday, He gave me an illustration to increase my own understanding.

There is a couple in our church who are actively working with a ministry called Abolish Human Abortion. They go to abortion “mills” to speak to women on their way in. Other times they stand outside of high schools to speak to younger women whom they try to educate by pointing out how they have been lied to on this topic. They sometimes have posters or signs that picture an aborted fetus to show the truth of the horror of abortion.

The first time I talked to the woman in our church about it I was surprised and skeptical. Why do they need to show such a terrible picture to such a young mind; why not college campuses instead of high schools?

Her answer was straightforward: ”It is too late by college.” The teaching that abortion is better than ruining your life with a baby is taught to much younger ages these days.

Last Friday our Pastor went with this couple to a high school not far from where we live. While there, he talked to a fifteen year old girl who told him right away that she had already had an abortion. He asked her to tell him about it.

She responded that she had been very afraid but she had not known what else to do. His next question was about how she was doing now. Her response was, “I cry every night and try to write about it in my journal.”

She is fifteen and cries every night!

God has given me this illustration of why we need to more intentionally tell young people the truth about abortion. This young woman is barely through the tenth grade and she is crying herself to sleep every night.

She was lied to. She might have been t old it was the best she could do for her baby, not to subject the child to a less than perfect parent, not to have a child who was not planned and wanted from the moment of conception, who would tie her down and prevent her from furthering her education. A quiet, private abortion would just cover up the problem.

Some young girls who get pregnant think their parents will fall apart if they find out their daughter is sexually active, some fear what others will say or truly, how they will manage to grow up and become a productive citizen with a baby in tow. These excuses are the fear of man. They are covers over the reality of sin.

As a parent, I cannot imagine the pain of knowing that my fifteen year old daughter, rather than enjoying her teenage years, is lying in her bed crying herself to sleep every night. What a tragedy in this girl’s life, and her parents’ (though they may be completely unaware).

There is an evil element in the world encouraging women to abort babies. It is not just murder, it is heart wrenching. They lie and say it will be better for the mother and father, they have now even begun to give women a letter that says it is okay with God, that there are clergy who they can talk to who will support them in their decision. (http://www.progressivestoday.com/shock-planned-parenthood-points-to-bible-to-justify-abortions/)

The deception does not end.

I feel as though, through this young 15 year-old post abortive, depressed young woman, God has given me my own personal illustration to see that indeed, we need to be telling teens the truth about abortion. She heard too late to stop her own. But it’s not too late to tell her of the forgiveness that comes with faith in Jesus Christ.

This is radical stuff. But it is time to talk about it — out loud — to people who do not recognize the deception of “it’s a personal decision based on your own complicated circumstances”.

The truth is that abortion murders a baby. That truth will hold you hostage as you cry yourself to sleep at night for a long time.