Its been a while since I have blogged here, but I have started to do so again since many of my friends here in S.C. have no desire to have an account with the distracting myspace (where I have been blogging the last couple years). I wrote this one a year ago, but since it is once again Sanctity of Life month, I thought this would be a good thing to share with you all. I had the privilege of attending several events last year in support of the Sancitity of Life and hope to do so even more this year. The bottom two pics above are borrowed from February 2007 Time magazine which featured an article about the success of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. The story below comes alive for me again every time I pass the church with its row of white crosses.
January 31, 2007
For those of you who don't know it, this month was Sanctity of Life month. At the church in North Charleston (I have recently been attending) there are about a couple hundred crosses representing abortions that have taken place in the last year. You can imagine that it has caused quite a stir in the community. People have called the church outraged because they do not understand the meaning behind the crosses. I think these crosses mean different things to people of the true church, but to me it is a reminder that by God's grace he covered these babes with his atoning blood so they now could rest with Him in heaven. At times, I have thought about how even in something so terrible as abortion God uses evil for good. I think of all the aborted fetuses at times and how they are now in heaven, safe from a world full of pain and sin. It was sin that brought these fetuses out of the world by death but it was grace which kept these babes from ever entering a world of sin. Somehow in all this evil, the Lord had a way of ushering these babes into the eternal life of heaven. Babes that might have otherwise gone to hell. I think of what Job said. He said to his friends I wish that I had been born stillborn that I might be now with kings and princes! He longed for an eternal life without suffering. These small babes have the joy of being raised in the arms of Christ. Of course that does not excuse the pain that abortion causes for mothers and everyone associated. Many women have complications after abortion, and many others face severe emotional trauma, which may even lead to suicide. The pastor told us a story this week that I will never forget. As I mentioned, the crosses in front of the church have caused somewhat of a stir. Last week a couple stopped their car beside the lawn of crosses. A church member thought they meant to vandalize them and stopped across the street to observe. They did not mean to vandalize but were intrigued instead. They took pictures of the sign and the crosses and walked up and down the rows of this memorial. Then the man left the woman alone. The woman knelt down in front of a cross and on her knees she cried and appeared to be praying. Then she did an unusual thing. She picked up a cross and raised it in the air and kissed it and hugged it to her chest. The church member left at.that point so we can only imagine the rest of the story. I like to think the woman was finally coming to grips with the past mistake she had made. In cradling that cross she was choosing not to focus on the emotional baggage, but instead was letting go of the baggage to accept that her child was now with the Lord. It was just a plain white cross but the woman saw power in the cross which reminded her of the cross of Christ where her sins, even that sin of abortion, had been covered. She laid the pain of the memory at the edge of that cross. Is there any baggage that you need to lay at the cross today? I know as I heard that story of the woman and tears started to pour down my face that I came before the cross of Christ myself. A huge weight of emotional baggage I had been carrying was also placed at the foot of cross. What a joy it is to know He has taken away the guilt of bloodshed for those who have accepted the power of the cross of Christ. Sweet blood flowed over me and I am forever clean. Cleaned by the blood of the Lamb.
