A Lament for the Unborn

 This summer I am taking a short two-week class studying the book of Job. One assignment for this class was to write two laments one personal, and one about something at a distance. I chose to write this latter lament on abortion. I know that this is a controversial topic and that it stands outside of the general subject of this blog, however I couldn’t resist the opportunity to share this beyond my class. During my undergraduate years I had the opportunity to volunteer and intern with a crisis pregnancy clinic in Columbia, MO. My time there was an eye-opening and heart-rending experience forever cementing the lives of the unborn and their parents deeply in my heart. 

Holy Lord, you are our Father and bridegroom. Hear our cries as we struggle to understand and help your suffering daughters and their un-born children. You know your children and their hearts before they were ever knit in their mother’s wombs. Hear our voice in the absence of their stifled voices and bring an end to this madness.

We know you are a faithful and loving father, yet when we see mothers who can’t bear the thought of feeding one more mouth turning to abortion to escape bringing another life into such hell, our hearts are shattered and rent at such a choice ever having to be weighed by your daughters. Why, O Lord do children die at the hand of their desperate mothers? Why does poverty have such a grip on their lives, and hopelessness so deeply grip their hearts that taking the life of their own flesh and blood seems like a sane choice? There surely is no sanity in this, no reason other than pure desperation. Why are so many people’s hearts hardened to the point where they would laud such a choice as a right or as an undeniable privilege? They try and make this discussion seem reasonable and almost holy. How long will you allow children’s lives to be profaned by such words? This seems like such madness and troubles our souls beyond words.

We know that because of your fatherly love and compassion that you hear our cries and the stifled cries of the unborn slain before they could open their eyes. We know that you value each new life beyond comprehension and care more deeply than we could ever imagine about each and every child born, or prevented from being born.

In our helplessness, we ask you to be with and comfort these mothers. Bring aid to them and overwhelm them with resources and support so that with the lens of desperation removed, the horror of such a so-called “choice” is manifest. Remove the systems of oppression and stifle the voices of false counsel that try and hide the murders that takes place daily in clinics around the world.

When you respond, we will tell of your great faithfulness and your fatherly care. Your glory and love shall be known and your saving presence brought into even the darkest places so that it may begin to soften even the most resolute hearts. We beseech you Lord, hear us.