Minnesota Prairie Roots

A snippet of a painting that hangs in a hallway at my church shows Jesus holding a baby.

“WHY ARE WE HERE? It’s not just because the children are precious. We are here because the children are precious to God.”

Dr. James Lamb, executive director of Lutherans for Life, delivered that message to me and other worshippers today at Trinity Lutheran Church in Faribault as we celebrated “Sanctity of Human Life” Sunday. By the way, I thought his surname—Lamb—quite fitting for a man who heads up an organization that “equips you to be gospel-motivated voices for life, to love and speak the truth compassionately.”

Now I’m not the protesting type, although I wore a pro-life bracelet back in the 1970s. I’ve never rallied against abortion, but I strongly oppose it. I’m not the type to stand on a public soapbox and loudly express my viewpoint.

But I’ve been gifted, through my writing, with the ability to share my thoughts and feelings, facts and opinions, to make a point, or to cause readers to pause and think.

So, this morning, when Rev. Lamb stepped behind the pulpit, I grabbed a pencil and started scribbling notes in the margins of my worship service folder. I expected he might tell me a thing or two regarding human life that I would want to pass along to you. He did.

All the while I was listening to him, I thought of the precious baby girl, newborn Valentine’s Day baby, Abigail Grace, who was sleeping several pews behind me. I almost wished, as the preacher preached, that little Abigail could be up front with him, making a strong visual impact as he talked about the value of human life.

“You knitted me together in my mother’s womb,” Pastor Lamb read from Psalms and then explained that the “knitting together” means not only the physical part, but our essence, our very being, our souls.

We each are, he said, one in 70 trillion.

And then he tossed out more numbers which astonished me. There have been 52 million lives lost to abortion since it was legalized in the U.S. in 1973, he said. Today in the U.S., there are 3,200 abortions daily, he continued.

I thought of little Abigail several pews back, so loved by parents who call her their blessing.

“Your value comes from God, who made you,” the Rev. Lamb told us.

How true?

A portion of Jesus face, photographed from a stained glass window at Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault.

But then, lest I began feeling all smug and innocent sitting there in my pew on a Sunday morning, the pastor dared to suggest that we worshippers might share in the blame of millions of lives lost through abortion.

Have we failed to speak out against abortion? Have we made the abortion issue a political one rather than focusing on the value of human life that comes from God? Have we failed to show compassion to those who’ve had abortions? Have we failed to tell them, Pastor Lamb said, that “you too are blessed with the forgiveness that is free, unearned, unconditional and complete (through Jesus)”?

Guilty.

So I am doing my part today, from a heart that cares deeply for the unborn children of God and for precious little ones like Abigail Grace, to tell you that I am upholding the sanctity of life because “the children are precious to God.”

Precious.

Children of God.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling