Why I Am Pro-Life

Karen and I went to a beautiful wedding today. I cried and she did too.

We had only briefly met the bride before and never met the groom, yet it was very emotional for us.

Karen and I first encountered the bride, age 29, some 30 years ago. It was a time of great distress and emotional stress. That time we were angry, frustrated and scared. A young woman with whom we had been involved in ministry said she was pregnant. I suppose we felt like failures and upset with her to boot.

We experienced a whole range of emotions that night, especially when the woman said the father of the child was insisting on an abortion. We had always been strongly pro life in theology and ministry, but now we had to put up or shut up. If we encouraged the mother to carry her child, it had many financial, practical, emotional and ministerial realities. Money, adoption, a place to live, how to treat the father, etc all came into play.

Today, thirty years later, we saw the results of the decision to support life even at great cost. That baby, now all grown up, got married and the circle of life continues. She was beautifully glowing in the ceremony and so was her birth mother. They had been reunited two years ago and both mothers were involved in the service.

As a side note, the couple who adopted her lived less than a half mile from the birth mother and they attended a church whose Pastor has been my friend for over thirty years. But Karen and I never learned who the adoptive parents were nor did we want to know.

Most of the time we never learn if our stands for Christ and a righteous life amount to anything. We plant seeds but might not see the fruit of our labors until e are reunited in heaven. But in this instance we got to see the fruit that came from standing on God's word even though it came thirty years afterward.

It struck me today that if I have labored for forty years in ministry. If nothing comes of it but todays wedding I will be satisfied.

Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to serve you and see the fruit of faith, hope and love.