Heartbroken

I read a news story today about a newborn baby that was found dead in an Indianapolis creek. It was horrendous, and this story ripped my heart apart.

 

I’m heartbroken for the baby, who didn’t know love in his short life. Whose life was taken by the “choice” of someone else. Who was never given a voice to say, “I want to live!” and who didn’t have someone else to speak up for him. Who died a death worse than a pet… a death in cold, dirty water, either drowned, starved, or frozen as winter keeps its hold this March.

 

I’m heartbroken for the mother. How callused, numb, and dead inside did she have to be to kill her own child? To feel a new life inside of her as she nourished him for 9 months. To hear his cry as he greeted the world. To hear him cry one last time as she laid him down in that cold, dirty creek… and then walked away. Ignoring the baby’s only words for, “Mommy, I’m cold and I’m scared!” This mother has to always live with the fact that she made the “choice” to let her baby boy die. She has to live with the fact that she is not simply childless, but that she is the mother of a dead child. Her “choice” will just send her farther and farther into darkness.

 

I’m heartbroken for abortion supporters, who are unaware that this is what they support. Why is this mother any different than the ones who kill their babes in the womb? What if this mother’s excuse was to have mercy on a child that she could not afford, and to prevent this child from possible suffering and poverty? Or maybe this baby was disabled in some way, and so to keep him from challenges and struggles, she killed him instead. Is this excusable because her intent was good, that she “mercifully” killed her own? Is her intent still valid even though she killed her baby after he was born rather than before? Does it even matter that this baby is dead because his mother did not want him? If it is not wanted, then it doesn’t deserve to live—isn’t that the justification for abortion?

 

What difference does it make to kill a baby—for any reason—in the womb rather than outside of it?

 

Abortion supporters turn a blind eye to the baby (even though they claim to care about the child’s potential life) and consider themselves to be the saviors of the mother. If they really loved the mother, then they would not want her to go through such a traumatizing and life-ending ordeal (literally for the baby, figuratively for the mom). They would love the mother enough to support her and her child, rather than just make her the mother of a dead child. They would not wish the nightmares and pain and guilt upon her. They would not wish the typical, subconscious response of behaviors like alcoholism, drugs, or just generally losing hope and joy for life. They would not wish to put her very life in danger, as abortions can be extremely dangerous and have severely injured and killed many women. They would not wish to risk her future fertility or health, as having abortions have been linked to infertility and breast cancer later in life. They would not wish that the mother would distance herself emotionally from her current or future children, feeling guilty for taking the life of one of her own and not ever feeling worthy of being loved by the children that she spared from her “choice.” This is misguided love for the mother, thinking that she can just get rid of an unplanned problem and continue on with a happy, normal life.

 

I’m heartbroken for blindness and hardness of heart. I’m heartbroken for those who I know personally—and I know they are good and beautiful souls—but they unknowingly support all of this. “Mercy killing.” That is not mercy… do you know what true mercy is? “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do…”

 

I cannot judge and I cannot forgive. All I can do is what I have been commanded to do: love. I love all the little babies, born and unborn. I love the mothers, the ones who joyfully announce the life within them and the ones who are scared to death, not knowing what to do about the life within them. I love them so deeply, even if I never meet or know any of them. I love my brothers and sisters who support abortion. I love them to death and pray for them. I pray hard, with my knees to the ground and tears in my eyes. These, too, are God’s children. Some of them are even Christians, but who do not acknowledge “the Lord, the giver of life.” These, too, are my loved ones who are blind. Blindness to Truth breaks my heart more than anything.

 

Words do little for the blind and hard of heart. But that doesn’t mean I still can’t try, especially for those that are outside of my current community. But wherever I go, I will pray. Wherever I am, I will show love. Through God’s grace, I find more and more courage to be there, in the community, in front of the abortion clinics, if only just to show someone that I care. That I’m not judging, and that I love them. Whoever “them” is: the mother, the baby, the baby’s siblings, the father, the grandparent, the aunt or uncle, the abortionist, the clinic employee, the abortion supporter, etc. More people are affected by abortion than just the baby and the mom. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes. As our [blind, very pro-abortion] President said to the Sandy Hook community: 

“And we know we can’t do this by ourselves.  It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize, no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself.  That this job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community, and the help of a nation.  And in that way, we come to realize that we bear a responsibility for every child because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that we’re all parents; that they’re all our children.”

 

 

I’m heartbroken, but I’m not without faith, hope, or love, which only grow stronger with time.

 

 

“So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13